Brave New World
by AnneRG
Summary: The day when Mia Davis was told the love of her life, Sirius Black, had been wrongly taken to Azkaban, was also the day when she was given her godson, Harry Potter, to raise along with hers and Sirius’s baby. Sequel to ‘Finding Our Way'.
1. Far Away

**Title: **Brave New World

**Author:** AnneRG

**Spoilers:** Through all the books, with changes, of course

**Pairings:** Sirius/OC, Harry/Ginny (eventually), Ron/Hermione (eventually), others.

**Rating:** T

**Warning: **Read the prequel, 'Finding Our Way', first

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Wish it belonged to me…

**Summary:** The day when Mia Davis was told the love of her life, Sirius Black, had been wrongly taken to Azkaban, was also the day when she was given her godson, Harry Potter, to raise along with hers and Sirius' baby. Sequel to '_Finding Our Way'_ and AU to the books.

**Montreal****, Canada, 1981**

Through the window of her small house, Mia Davis watched the children run on the sidewalks, followed by their parents. It was dark outside but that wouldn't keep them from enjoying that night. Their costumes gave the occasion away. Halloween.

Their innocent laughter filler her ears and made her sigh as she rubbed her overgrown stomach. Would Sirius be here to enjoy Halloween with their baby when he or she was old enough to do it? Would she ever be able to leave this exile and return to England and to Sirius? Months had passed since she had to leave her country after her family had been marked to die by Voldemort. The only things that kept her alive were the promise from Sirius that they would be together again and his child that she was carrying. Aware of his or her mother's distress, the baby moved. Mia wondered if that was his or her way of telling her everything would be alright.

She closed the curtains and walked to the kitchen in order to make herself some tea. The truth was that for the past hours she had had a strange feeling in her gut, like something bad had happened… Unwilling to think of the worse, Mia concentrated all her attention in making the tea.

Mia looked at her reflection on the window – her dark brown hair was fixed in a messy ponytail and her chocolate coloured eyes looked more troubled than ever. She had always asked herself where she had gotten the brown hair from. Her parents were both redheads and, as far as she could remember, at least from her grandparents' pictures, neither of them had her hair colour either.

Suddenly, she was startled by the unexpected ringing of the doorbell. Her body tensed and a shiver ran though all her spine.

"Calm down, it's probably some kids playing trick or treat," Mia murmured to herself. After putting out the fire, she walked to the door and opened it. However, there were no kids there. "Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall," she gasped. "I wasn't expecting you to come here. Please, come in."

"Good evening, Amelia," Dumbledore greeted her in his usual calming voice. His eyes darted to her bump for a moment but he managed to hide his surprise. "We are sorry for the disturbance but it was absolutely necessary for us to come."

"It's no disturbance at all, Professor," she said. Mia knew that was no social call. If they were there was because they had news – good or bad. She indicated them the living room. "Please, take a seat. I was making myself some tea. I will bring it here."

"I'll help you," McGonagall offered, following her. She gave her one of her 'don't argue' looks before Mia could protest. "How are you doing, Mia?" she inquired her former student, whom she had been surprised to see pregnant, as they entered the kitchen.

"Some days are better than others," she stated simply. "The baby is Sirius's, if you are wondering."

McGonagall nodded. "I had assumed that much."

Mia tried to give her a smile but she couldn't. A question ached in her throat: _How's Sirius?_ Once more, she couldn't bring herself to ask it, fearing the response she would get. She simply poured the tea into the cups on the tray, which McGonagall reached for before she could react.

When they re-entered the living room, Dumbledore was sitting immobile on one armchair like a statue. The worried expression that was on his face during their absence was quickly replaced by a calm one.

Mia carefully sat on the sofa with McGonagall by her side, dreading the conversation that was about to take place.

"I'm afraid we're not the bearers of good news, Amelia," he told her carefully.

Deep down, she knew that from the moment she saw the two professors' faces in her doorway. "What happened?"

"Lily and James were found…" McGonagall said, reaching for her hand.

"No…" Mia whispered. Not them. Lily and James, oh Merlin, and Harry. They were so happy…

"I'm sorry, Mia," she said. "You-know-who killed the two of them."

No, that was too much. Two of her best friends were dead. Merlin, why all that war? Why so much innocent victims. But then Mia remembered something. "You said 'the two of them'… Is Harry…?"

"Harry is alive," Dumbledore told him. "Something amazing has happened. Voldemort used the killing curse on little Harry but it reflected and ended up affecting himself."

"How's that possible?" Mia asked in surprise. Nobody had ever survived the killing curse. How would Harry, a fifteen-month-old baby, be able to do that?

"We believe it was Lily's love. She sacrificed herself to protect her son," McGonagall told her sadly. "The only thing he got was a scar."

Mia covered her face with her hands, wondering how the others were reacting. Liz, Remus, Peter, Sirius. Oh, Merlin, Sirius… He had just lost his best friend. "How is Sirius dealing with this?" she asked faintly.

The hesitation in Dumbledore's voice was what scared her the most. "Amelia, you'll have to be strong now… A couple of hours ago, an entire street and several muggles were blown up in London. Peter Pettigrew was also killed. It was a wizard's doing and the ministry thinks it was Sirius who did it."

_No! No, no, no! _"Sirius?! No! He would never do that! How can they even consider…"

"Mia, we don't believe it either!" McGonagall assured her, putting her hands on Mia's shoulders.

"They are basing themselves on the belief that Sirius was the Potter's secret keeper and betrayed them to Voldemort as his follower," Dumbledore said.

"But he is not the secret-keeper!" she told him. "He told me he hadn't accepted!"

"We know, Amelia. James told Albus Sirius wasn't the secret-keeper. Did he tell you who it was?" McGonagall asked.

Mia shook her head. "I told him not to. I thought it might be a risk to… Merlin, why did I do that?!" In the moment she said that, Mia burst into tears.

"You were looking out for your friends, Amelia," Dumbledore told her. "You are not to blame. The ministry thinks Sirius went to that street to kill Peter. I tried to give my testimony to the ministry but they are not even giving him a trial before sending him to Azkaban."

It had to be a nightmare. "They can't! They can't do this to him! He belongs here with me and our baby!"

McGonagall soothed Mia's back in a very unlike fashion for her. She honestly didn't know what to say. It was too much for a young lady like Mia to handle, especially in her current condition… She hoped the shock wouldn't affect her pregnancy.

"We know it is unfair, Amelia," Dumbledore said understandingly. "I'll keep trying to make them listen but I can't promise anything. For now, I think you should stay here in Montreal – there are still several Death Eaters at large. Now, Hagrid must be arriving soon," Dumbledore murmured. "I've got to deluminate the street. Minerva, could you tell her…"

Between her tears, Mia let go of McGonagall and looked confused at the Headmaster's retreating figure. Why was Hagrid coming?

"There, Mia, wipe these tears…" McGonagall told her, offering her a handkerchief. "You need to put yourself together because there's more."

"More?" she asked, half-numbed. There was still more?

"It's not bad news," McGonagall said. "It's about Harry…"

"Harry?"

The teacher nodded. "Albus wanted to leave him with Lily's muggle sister because of the blood protection but her husband refused to have him when he realized they might be a target if Harry was around. And that leaves you, his godmother, to be his guardian, Mia."

"Oh," that was all she could say at the moment. Her mind was floating through all that tragedy – Lily and James dying, Sirius being sent to Azkaban… And now she was keeping Harry. Of course she was happy to have her godson around, but she wasn't even sure she'd be a good mother to her unborn child, let alone two children…

Mia didn't know how long it had passed since she had been told she was Harry's guardian. Seconds? Minutes? It was like she had drifted into a trance.

"_I've got her._"

The familiar voice woke her up and she looked up to see Lulu kneeling right in front of her. "Lulu?" What was she doing there? Mia hadn't even been able to say goodbye to her former nanny before coming into hiding.

"You didn't think Dumbledore would leave you to deal with all this by yourself, did you?" Lulu asked her, giving her a sympathetic smile and reaching for her hands. "It will be alright, Mia. I know it's been a horrible night and it seems like the end of the world. But I promise you it will get easier. I'll be here to help."

Mia sobbed. "Thank you," she said in a strangled voice.

McGonagall approached them with a sleeping Harry in her arms. "I'm sorry but we have to go. Things back in England are quite a mess and we're needed there. We'll check on you from time to time." She passed the baby to Lulu, who accepted him gladly, before joining Dumbledore by the doorway.

"I wish you all the luck, Amelia," Dumbledore said before disapparating along with McGonagall.

Left alone with Lulu and a sleeping Harry, Mia sighed. She was so lost. Even with Lulu there, she still didn't know what to do…"What do I do now, Lu?"

"I don't have all the answers, Mia," Lulu told her. "But whatever you do, just make sure your godson and that baby you're carrying are happy. That will make you happy too…"

---

**One month and a half later**** – December 15****th**** 1981**

When Dumbledore had told her about Sirius, Mia had though it was impossible to ever feel joy again. She was wrong.

It was so incredible, so priceless, the feeling of holding her newborn baby. Hers and Sirius's. A tear rolled down her cheek as she thought of that. He wasn't there to meet his child, his tiny little girl with pink cheeks and dark brown hair just like her mother's.

Mia had picked her name in the moment as she first laid eyes on the squirming newborn less than half an hour ago: Isabelle after her sister and Kathleen because that was the middle name Mia shared with Lulu. Isabelle Kathleen Black… her Izzy. Her poor little girl who couldn't meet her father because he had been innocently locked in a prison worse than any product of her nightmares.

The knocking on the door made Mia look up to see Lulu entering the room with Harry on her arms. "The nurses were fighting over the little runt," Lulu said, nodding at Harry.

Mia gave them a soft smile. Lulu had been by with her in the delivery room, never leaving her side for a second. Merlin knew she wouldn't be able to have that baby if she had been there all alone. "Bring him here," Mia asked her former nanny.

Lulu took a few steps ahead, sitting the toddler by his godmother's side on the hospital bed. Harry giggled and pointed at the little pink bundle Mia was holding. "Bibi!"

"Yes, Harry, this is a baby," she told him softly. Mia wasn't sure how the need to divide all the attention with another baby would affect her godson. The poor boy had lost his parents less than two months before and she could tell he still missed them…. "Her name is Izzy. She will be like your little sister from now on, okay?"

"Lil Sissy?" he asked, unsure of what that meant.

"Yes. It means she'll always be around," Mia tried to explain. "Izzy will need a lot of attention now because she's very small but someday when she's older you'll be able to play with her. She'll be your friend."

"Icki?" Harry inquired.

Mia nodded. "You'll be great friends, just like your dads." Her voice started to crack at the last sentence.

"Sad," little Harry said innocently, snuggling by his godmother's side.

Lulu approached the bed and sat on the edge of it. "You miss him, don't you?"

The young mother nodded, biting her lower lip as tears ran down her red eyes. "I want him to meet our baby, Lu. I want him to get to be a dad to Izzy and to Harry. I want him to stay with me."

"He will," she said, reaching to caress the soft hair on the baby's head. Seeing Mia holding that little baby made her nostalgic. "One day you'll see he will. I know it. You just have to stay strong until he does."

**A/N: Here is the first chapter of the sequel! How do you like it so far? Review!~**

**By the way, next chapter will still be in this timeline but chapter three will skip several years into the future.**


	2. Truth

The night of Christmas Eve. For the past four years Christmas Eve had had a special meaning to Sirius and Mia, being the anniversary of their first time and a day that they always spent together. This year, it wasn't such a pleasant occasion for Mia. She couldn't bear thinking of it. Every time she looked at the bloody tree that Lulu had set on the living room, all she could think about was how she and Sirius hadn't been able to decorate it together because he was in Azkaban suffering horrors… How Lily and James wouldn't be able to join come over to spend midnight there with them because they were dead…

All insecurities, fears… they were all coming back to her. Christmas Eve was their day. It wasn't fair they had to spend it apart, especially now that they were supposed to be celebrating the birth of their baby. All she wanted to do was getting a portkey to the British Ministry of Magic and yell to whoever had sent the love of her life to that horrid place they called a prison that he was innocent. But none of that would work. They wanted him to be guilty. She hated it. The Ministry, the Dementors, Christmas… She hated it all.

"Mia, what is it?" Lulu asked, taking a seat by her side on the sofa, having noticed the angry expression on her face.

She didn't answer. Her jaw was locked out of the fear she would regret anything she said.

"Don't keep it bottled inside, Mia. It's not good for you," she insisted. "What is it?"

"Christmas," Mia said through her teeth. She wasn't sure of anything anymore. It was like she was falling in a bottomless pit. "I hate it."

Lulu shook her head. What was getting into her? "That's not true. You love it. You just miss them. Lily, James, Sirius… I know you miss them all. But you can't destroy the things you love because of all the anger you feel since they are gone. That is not right. That is not fair… for you or for the children. Imagine Harry and Izzy growing up seeing you hate so much!"

Mia got up and laughed in disdain – Lulu couldn't help feeling how wrong that sounded coming from her. That wasn't the Mia she knew and loved. "Well, that's great you pointed it out. That would make me a bad mother, wouldn't it? Not only am I alone, but also I'm condemned to be a crappy mother. It's in my blood. My mother was awful being one, so why wouldn't I? Muggles call it genetics. My parents were horrible and I… hated them. Izzy and Harry will end up hating me too. I'm gonna be just as bad as they were. I'm tainted!"

Lulu slapped her and regretted it immediately. She had never laid a hand on Mia before but she had it coming this time, which didn't make her feel any better. "Don't you _ever_ say that again! Don't you _ever_ say you will be a bad mother just because your paren… just because they didn't do what they were supposed to. They were supposed to have feelings for you, to take care of you. And yes, your parents never did what they supposed to. But they weren't Susan and Phillip Davis, either!"

Mia stared, her eyes widening and in tears and her hand still touching the cheek Lulu had slapped. "What the bloody hell are you talking about?!"

"Your mother wasn't Susan and your father wasn't Philip. Your parents, your _real _parents, were sixteen -year-old fools that ended up with more that they had bargained for," Lulu told her harshly. Mia looked at her in shock, part of it because of what she was saying, the other because of the tone in Lulu's voice – it was pure regret. "They thought that by giving you up, someone would be able to care for you better that they were. But they loved you… so much you have no idea.

"And your mother… she just couldn't stay away even after giving you up. So she looked for you and ended up at your grandmother's doorstep. Margaret Davis was a saint of a woman. Your grandmother knew the truth from the moment she saw your mother holding you. She knew you belonged to her because her son and his wife didn't care for a child – they had only adopted because she wanted to have grandchildren very much. So she let your mother stay… as your nanny. And she… _I_ looked after you, regretting every single moment giving you away. And here you are, standing in front of me, already committing yourself to follow _their _footsteps even though you were _never_ theirs. So don't try to blame it on genetics. I was bad, but not as much as they were. You disappoint me. Sirius would be disappointed if he was here."

Betrayal was the first thing Mia felt. How dare she mention Sirius like that? And all that time… All that time and Lulu hadn't breathed a word. She knew how much pain Mia had felt in the beginning, wondering why her parents didn't care for her at all. "Get out."

"No," Lulu said without hesitation.

"Just get out. Of my house, of my life. _Get the hell out!_" she yelled, for a moment thanking herself for putting a silencing charm around Harry's room and her own, where the baby was sleeping.

"I won't!" Lulu told her. "I am not _them_. I won't leave you while you need me. And you may not know it, but you do need me."

Mia sank in the sofa, bringing her knees up to her chest and sinking her head between them. "Go away, Lulu. Please just go away! You're only making it worse!"

Lulu knew she was crying now, so she did the exact opposite of what Mia had told her. She sat by her side on the sofa and wrapped her arms around her daughter's crying form.

Mia fought back for a moment, but the pain was just too much and she stopped. She cried on Lulu's shoulder for everything. "I miss him. I miss him so much! I can't do this without him. I love Izzy and Harry but I can't—"

"Yes, you can! They are what you need keep yourself together, Mia," Lulu told her. "And I'll help. I promise I won't leave while you need me." She continued stroking her daughter's hair until the sobs stopped and she fell asleep.

---

Mia woke up slowly when the light coming from the window hit her face. She found herself in her bedroom but didn't remember getting there. The last thing she remembered was… sobbing. Sobbing like there was no tomorrow on Lulu's shoulder. She frowned slightly at the thought of Lulu. She knew it hadn't been her imagination – Lulu really was _her mother_.

Everything looked so much clearer now. All the things she had bottled inside, starting with the grief and ending with her insecurities about being a mother had come out in her outburst last night. It had been horrible… But she needed it.

Getting up in order to check on Izzy, Mia sighed. But the cradle was empty only with a note inside it. _'You need your sleep. I've got the baby,'_ she read Lulu's familiar calligraphy.

Mia didn't know how to feel about her. In the past, having Lulu as her mother was all she ever wanted but now that it had turned out to be true things were just too complicated for her to feel delighted about it.

"_Twee, twee!" _Harry's delighted squeal coming from outside her room reminded her it was Christmas day. _You have the children,_ a little voice inside her head told her. _Hold on to them._

Gathering every bit of strength she had, Mia walked out of the room, ready to face everyone. Harry was toddling his way to the living room right outside her door and flashed a grin when he saw her.

"'tie Mii," he said, lifting his little arms. "Up!"

Mia approached the little boy and picked him up from the floor. He gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek and giggled. The poor boy had lost just about as much as she had and now, apart from a couple of relative that had rejected him, Mia was all he had got. And she was also all Izzy got. She couldn't just let them down.

"Ichmas," he said with a laugh. She gave him a small smile and kissed his chubby cheek as she carried him to the living room.

There, Lulu was silently setting the table for breakfast as Izzy lied awake in her baby carrier on the sofa. Mia put her godson on the floor and he ran to the tree, excited to see all the lights there. She sat on the sofa and removed Izzy from the carrier.

The baby felt so light in her arms, yet so important in her life. It wasn't right that she had to be experiencing so much sorrow in a time that was supposed to be the happiest of her life. The baby closed her little hands in fists and looked up at her mother with curious like she was trying to read her mind of something of that sort. Mia couldn't help imagining that if Sirius was there, he would have that goofy grin of his directed right to his little girl.

For a moment, she wondered of her father. She didn't even know who he was. Had he ever held her like that, felling pride running through his veins? "Who was my father?" she asked out loud, not looking away from Izzy.

Lulu looked at Mia from beside the breakfast table, surprised that she was talking to her at all. "What?"

"My father. You didn't mention who he was last night."

She chuckled. "Can't you guess? I think you always found him slightly… mysterious. You have his eyes."

_Mysterious?_ Mia thought. It took her a few seconds to realize what Lulu was telling her but, when the truth hit her, Mia finally looked up at her birth mother. "Gabriel? Gabriel McKinnon?"

"The one and only," she told her with a sigh.

"So that was why he was so… protective? While we were in the Order, I mean," Mia said, putting the pieces together. That explained a lot: the stared, how he got uncomfortable whenever he heard of Susan and Phillip Davis…

Lulu nodded as she approached her and took a seat by her side on the sofa. "He hated that you were part of it in the first place but he couldn't tell you not to, so he decided to play the role of your guardian angel. I kept warning him that he would get himself killed but he always replied that he loved you too much to care. I'll always be grateful for that."

"He… he still loved me?" she gasped. "After all this time?"

"Of course he did. Gabe always did have a special place for you in his heart. You should have seen his face when you were born – he was so proud. The two of us knew two teenagers couldn't possibly give you the life you deserved, but we pretended for one single night that things might turn out well," Lulu said, a sad expression all over her face. "He told me once that having you back in his life had made him a happy man. I don't think I need to tell you that I love you too, Mia."

Mia fought back the tears, clutching Izzy against her chest. It was comforting, so comforting, knowing that her parents, even though she hadn't known them as such before, had loved her. "Did you love _him_?"

Lulu nodded in answer. "He was my first love. Probably will be the only. But we were not meant to be, Mia. Sometimes things turn out like that. Not everyone has a happy ending."

Mia took a deep breath. "Didn't you ever imagine how things would have turned out if we, the three of us, had had that happy ending?"

"Sometimes," Lulu confessed. "But neither of us would be who we are now if things had been different. And you would have never had the sister you name your daughter after or the grandmother you loved so much. Imagine their lives without us there. Poor Belle with only Susan and Philip around after your grandmother passed."

"She didn't deserve something like that," Mia agreed with a sigh. It was in that moment that Mia realized that she and Lulu would be fine eventually. She cared more about her than she had ever imagined. "I don't blame you for giving me up, Lu. You were always there for me like a mother is supposed to. But you can't expect me to just get used to this in a heartbeat."

"I'll give you all the time you need," Lulu promised. "But I won't go away even if you ask me to. I won't leave you with two kids for you to raise by yourself."

Mia nodded, glancing at Harry, who was now busying himself with ripping a piece of wrapping paper in little bits. He grinned at his godmother when he saw her looking. The little boy struggled to get up and toddled in Mia's direction, giving her the ripped pieces of colourful paper.

She made an effort to hold Izzy with one single arm and accepted his 'gift', ruffling his already messy hair.

"I don't hate Christmas," she whispered to Lulu. "And I don't want you to go away. I was just angry."

"I know," her mother replied.

**A/N: I suppose most of you had already guessed this little thing... Well, I hope you liked it anyway! Tell me what you think? Better than the other one so far?**


	3. Coming Back

Nine years and seven months passed since the Christmas after Izzy's birth and a lot had happened since then.

Mia hadn't fully healed. The pain of not having Sirius around was still there but it got easier to deal with as time passed. Plus, after a short period of awkwardness over the fact that her long-term nanny had turned out to be her birth mother, things between her and Lulu had become normal again. She had tried to call Lulu 'Mum' in the beginning but it just sounded to odd to both of them and they had silently agreed that there was no problem calling her by her name. The same applied to the kids, but that was mostly because Lulu felt old whenever she heard herself being referred as 'Grandma'.

It was in one night, about a week before Harry's eleventh birthday that things started to change with the arrival a surprise letter from Albus Dumbledore addressed to Mia.

"Dumbledore says Harry should attend Hogwarts next year," Mia told Lulu as the two of them sat by the kitchen table after she read the letter. "He says that he will be safer there."

"What do _you _think, Mia?" Lulu asked her. "You are Harry's guardian. It is up to you to decide, not him."

She sighed. "You know I'd love him to attend to Hogwarts, Lu," Mia said. "But things will be so different for him in Britain. He's famous there. Reporters will be piling up just to get his picture. I don't want Harry to have to go through that."

"He will have to, eventually," her mother replied. "We can't protect him forever. He is a smart kid. He'll manage to get over it. If you want him to go to Hogwarts, then send him to Hogwarts."

"Easy to say," she mumbled. Mia knew that sending Harry to Hogwarts would not only be a change for him but also for all of them. Harry was part of the family, after all; it wouldn't be right to send him an ocean away without following. Just a couple of years ago, Dumbledore had told her it was safe to came back to her home-country and promised to give them protect them from the attentions if they did return. Maybe now it was time she accepted it…

She barely slept that night, considering the pros and the cons of going back to the UK and, eventually, the pros won. They were going back.

---

"Morning, Mummy," Izzy said, rubbing her sleepy eyes as she entered the kitchen in the following morning on her pyjamas.

Mia turned from the oven and gave her daughter a small smile. It was hard to believe her little baby had grown to become such a beautiful girl. At nine years old, Izzy had long brown hair that looked just like her mother's and her father's bright gray eyes. "Good morning, sweetie."

"Where is Lulu?" Izzy asked.

"Still sleeping," her mother told her. "Do Mummy a favour and go wake Harry up. I need to talk to the two of you."

Izzy's eyes widened in fear. "I swear it wasn't us!"

Mia raised an eyebrow. "What wasn't you?"

"Oh… er… nothing, Mummy," she said, relief all over her voice. "I'm going to wake him up now." Izzy hurried out of the kitchen before she could question her further. Knowing her daughter, Mia was sure she and Harry had been up to something, so she followed her.

"_Izzy! Stop shaking me, I'm already awake!"_ she heard Harry saying in his room.

"_Mummy wants to talk to us," _Izzy told him in a low tone.

"_What about?"_ he asked in an alarmed tone. _"Do you think she knows about Lulu's broomstick?"_

"_I don't think so," _the young girl said. _"But she'll find out we broke it. She _always_ does."_

Mia chuckled as she entered her godson's room. "You can bet I do," she told them. The two kids looked at her in horror when they realized she had heard them. "We'll talk about the broomstick later. Now, hurry to the kitchen because I have something to tell you."

Shaking her head, Mia returned to the kitchen and, just a minute or two later, her daughter and her godson joined her there, sitting by the table.

"Alright," she whispered to herself before looking at the two of them. "Last night I received an owl from Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts. It was concerning you, Harry."

"Me?" her godson asked in surprise.

Mia nodded. "He wants you attend Hogwarts next year."

The young boy's eyes shot open. "Really?" he asked genuinely happy.

"He gets to go to Hogwarts?" Izzy asked in wonder. "That's so cool!"

Her mother smiled softly and turned back to Harry. "I know you are very excited about this Harry but you have to understand that things there won't be the same as they are here in Montreal. People know your story in Britain; they want to… explore it. You'll probably be stared at all the time… Harry I just want to be sure you know what is expecting you if you go to Hogwarts."

"I can handle that," Harry said immediately. "Please, Aunt Mia, I really want to go there."

Mia sighed. She knew he'd say that… "Well, I guess that means we're moving back to Britain."

Izzy was the first to react, jumping out of her chair. "We are? Does that mean I'll get to go to Hogwarts too?"

"When you are eleven," Mia told her daughter, who groaned in return, knowing she'd have to wait extra long because she was born in December. "We're leaving in a couple of days, so you'd better start packing."

"Wait," Harry said. "So you're all being dragged back to Britain just because I'm going to Hogwarts?"

"You're part of the family, Harry," his godmother told him. "That is what family does. Besides, maybe we've been hiding for too long."

---

**Two days later**

"Do you have any idea of who is going to pick us up?" Lulu asked, as they waited in the backyard of the house for whoever was escorting them back to the UK. It was past midnight, a time specifically chosen to avoid the attention of the muggles living on that street.

"No," Mia replied as she shrunk the suitcases with a wave of her wand. "Dumbledore said it was someone we could trust."

"And where are we going to live?" Izzy asked, approaching them with Harry. "In Wales like you did?"

Mia shrugged. "I have no idea. Dumbledore is taking care of that too." The headmaster had promised them a 'familiar safe place'. She wasn't sure what that meant, but decided to trust him.

"Do you think we'll be able to see Daddy now that we're going back?" the little girl asked. "We could go to that prison."

Her mother's face fell as she looked at Lulu. Izzy and Harry had idea how Azkaban really was – to protect them from the horrible truth, Mia had let them believe that it was a prison just like the ones they saw in muggle TV. "I don't think so, sweetie. It is complicated."

"Why?"

In the moment Izzy finished saying that, there was a horrible cracking sound and a very odd-looking man appeared out of nowhere, holding a pair of binoculars. Taking a better look at the man, Izzy saw his face was severely scarred: a piece of his nose was seemingly missing and, where his right eye was supposed to be, there was a vivid electric blue orb that moved around independently from his normal eye. He also had a wooden leg. I was definitely not a good combination, which made him look like he had came right out of one of those horror stories Lulu told her and Harry sometimes.

"Moody, it's been a while," Mia greeted the man.

"Amelia Davis," he grumbled in a gruff voice, looking at her. "So this is where you've been hiding." He looked around, nodding at Lulu when he saw her but Harry was where he stopped. "Harry Potter. I always wondered why no bloody reporter could find this boy in England. Guess it was because he was not there." Then, he looked at Izzy "And let me guess… Black's spawn."

"Don't," Mia warned him in a hard tone. Mad-eye probably believed Sirius was guilty and she didn't want him to make a show in front of Harry and Izzy. "Her name is Isabelle."

"Right," he said, forcing himself to shut up. "The portkey leaves in three minutes."

"We're all ready," Mia told him.

Moody nodded and stretched his arm, showing them the binoculars. He looked at the two children. "Have you ever travelled by portkey?" They shook their heads no, so he proceeded to explain. "You have to touch this object before it disappears, which will happen in two and a half minutes. Don't let go of it until I tell you so as strange as it may feel. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Harry and Izzy chorused.

They all circled the binoculars and touched them as Mad-Eye looked at his watch and counted down.

_He __was right_, Izzy thought. The sensation was weird. Sort of like something was pulling her very fast… The landing was also sort of uncomfortable, like falling out of bed.

"You alright?" Mia asked, pulling her up from the floor.

"Yeah," she replied, trying to regain her balance. "Are we in Britain already?"

"I think so."

Mia looked around to see almost complete darkness. It was still night time and wherever they were, either there were no street lamps or they were all broken.

Suddenly, a group of lights seems to fly around them and several street lights started to work, allowing them to finally see their surroundings. It was an unfamiliar muggle street.

"Welcome back," Albus Dumbledore, who seemed to show up out of nowhere, greeted them. "I'm sorry for all that darkness, but I had to use the deluminator to remove all the lights or you could have been seen. I hope the trip wasn't too uncomfortable."

"Do you need me for anything else, Albus?" Mad-Eye asked the headmaster.

"You can go, Alastor," he stated. "Thank you for the help."

"So long, you all. Remember, Constant Vigilance!" he told them before apparating away.

Mia smiled to herself, reminiscing to her times back in the Order of the Phoenix. The man was _always_ saying that.

"Where exactly are we?" Lulu inquired, looking around, trying to recognize the place.

"In London," Dumbledore told her with a knowing smile. "To be more accurate, we are in Grimmauld Place."

"Grimmauld Place?" Mia asked in confusion. "You mean Sirius's parent's place?"

Izzy's eyes shot up, hearing her father's name. "This is the street where my dad grew up?" she whispered to Harry.

"Apparently," he said. That didn't seem like a place where pure-blood obsessed wizards would live in – too much muggles.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore was explaining the arragements to Mia. "Sirius's parents have already died and, as his brother is dead too, that makes Sirius the owner. Understand, Amelia, that this place has every protection measure know by wizard-kind, completely unspotable to muggles. It's the safest place you could ever be. So safe I'm not even sure we'll be able to go in…"

"What do you mean?" Mia asked.

"Well, as the last member of the Black family to live there, Sirius's mother, has already died, the wards saw the house as uninhabited. Because of that, only a member of the Black family or the legal heir can first open the door to enter this place and inhabit it. Isabelle, being Sirius's daughter, would be able to do that in theory, but because you and Sirius are not married, the wards can consider her illegitimate and refuse to let her in. Not to mention that she is not a male heir," the headmaster explained.

"That's ridiculous!" Lulu said.

"So, if I can't open the door what will we do?" Izzy asked shyly. "Where are we supposed to live?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Let's not think of it now. We should give it a try first." He indicated door number twelve. "If you may…"

Izzy gulped and walked there until she reached the doorstep, followed by everyone.

"You'll need a wand to tap the lock," Dumbledore told her. "As you don't have your own, you can use someone else's."

Mia took her wand out or her pocket and gave it to her daughter. "Use mine."

Izzy accepted her mother's wand and took a deep breath before using it to tap the lock. There was a clicking sound inside of it and when she touched the door it opened.

"Seems like there was no problem, after all," the headmaster said, pushing the door open.

Izzy was the first one to enter, followed by Harry, Mia and Lulu and, finally, Dumbledore. Just judging by the entrance, the place was a mess. Dust everywhere, spider webs…

"Sirius hated this place," Mia murmured.

"I guess you can't really blame him for it," Lulu replied, looking around.

"The house hasn't been inhabited for the past six years, so it needs a good cleaning. The Blacks were very fond of dark objects, so I advise to be careful of what you touch," Dumbledore told them. He turned to Mia. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to readjust the house's wards. Maybe you want to make a little tour around the house…"

"Thank you, Professor. We'll do that," Mia told the professor, who promptly entered into one of the rooms, before turning to her children. "Don't touch _anything_."

"Aw, what's the fun of exploring without touching, Mommy?" Izzy asked in annoyance.

"What's the fun of being cursed by the things you touch?" Lulu pointed out. "Or maybe losing a hand. You know, when body parts are cursed out, healers can't grow it back. That's probably why Moody looks the way he does…"

Izzy and Harry eyes widened in terror at the prospect of ending up like the grumpy man who had escorted them back and immediately stuffed their hands into their pockets.

"Lulu! Don't tell them stuff like that!" Mia told her mother. "Just don't touch anything until Lulu and I finish getting rid of the cursed objects. I don't want to spend our first day back in St. Mungo's."

**A/N: One more chapter to this fic. Just wanted to let you know that the next few chapters will be leading up to the real beginning of the story which is in the Prisoner of Azkaban timeline for reasons you may guess (I dare you :D). Review!**


	4. Birthday

It took them a while to fully clean the house and make it pleasant (and safe) to live in. It was unbelievably large, not to mention filled with all kinds of cursed objects, doxies and other plagues. Also, just a few hours after their arrival to Grimmauld place and while sneaking into the house's kitchen as Mia and Lulu fought a boggart, Izzy and Harry had ran into a very peculiar creature in one of the cupboards – the family house-elf, Kreacher.

"_It's a house-elf," __Izzy told Harry as she kneeled by the cupbord. "Hello? Can you hear us?" The elf didn't respond. "Maybe he's deaf."_

"_Girl talks to Kreacher, but Kreacher doesn't say anything. Kreacher ignores girl. Invaders of my mistress's house, the house of the Black," the house-elf mumbled to himself._

"_I'm a Black too," Izzy said. Hearing that, the house-elf looked at her with his eyes wide open. "My dad lived here. His name is Sirius. I'm Izzy."_

_The house-elf looked at her with wide eyes. "Young Master Sirius's child?" he asked._

"_Yeah," Izzy told him. "Harry's my brother… well, technically godbrother. You remember my dad?"_

"_Kreacher remembers," he said. "Kreacher didn't like young Master Sirius. He made Mistress mad and didn't like Kreacher."_

"_Oh, okay," Izzy said uncomfortably. "But your mistress is dead. That makes my dad your master."_

"_Master__ is in prison," Kreacher mumbled. _

"_I know," she murmured sadly. "But we're moving here now, you know? My mum, my grandmother, Harry and I. Is that okay with you?"_

"_Kreacher serves the Blacks. Young Mistress is a Black, so Kreacher has to serve her and her family," he said._

"_Why are you staying in a cupboard?" Harry asked him, speaking to the elf for the first time. "Don't you want to come outside?"_

_Kreacher shook his head._

"_Okay, you can stay there if you want," he accepted. "Have you been in this house for long?"_

"_Kreacher has served the Blacks since before Young Masters Sirius and Regulus were born," he told them. "Kreacher served mistress until she passed."_

"_That's a long time…" Izzy murmured, looking at the objects inside of Kreacher's cupboard. "Are these things from upstairs?"_

_He hesitated but ended up nodding. _

"_You can keep them if you want…" she said. It was just a bunch of old stuff and some family photos, nothing they would miss._

_Kreacher looked at her dumbstruck. "Young Mistress very kind," he said._

"_You can just call me Izzy, you know?" she told him._

"_No, Young Mistress. Kreacher's a servant," the elf insistent. "Kreacher must respect his masters."_

"_Hum, okay, fair enough," she gave up._

In the end, the house-elf had ended up being an immense help cleaning the house. Surprisingly, he had been the one to remove Mrs. Black's portrait – that screamed like a banshee whenever someone bothered it – from the entrance hall, even though it was stuck to the wall with a permanent charm, arguing that she probably didn't like noise. Mia of course, hadn't objected at all, allowing him to keep it in the attic as long as he kept it quiet and, as the cleaning went on, several other items, including the Black family tapestry, joined Mrs. Black up there.

By the time Harry's birthday's eve arrived, the house was completely unrecognizable. Wallpaper had been fixed; putrid curtains, sheets and the family china had been thrown away; plagues had been exterminated; most of the furniture had either been repaired or replaced by items Lulu had retrieved by the abandoned Davis house and things they had brought from their house in Montreal. To put it simply, Grimmauld Place was now as close to be a home as it was possible.

"What are you going to do now?" Lulu asked her daughter as the two of them sat on the drawing room in the first floor late at night. "About work, I mean. Are you going back to St. Mungo's?"

Mia shrugged. "I don't know…"

Her mother looked at her knowingly. "You don't know," she repeated. "Why?"

She sighed. "It's just that… I feel like I don't love healing anymore. Sometimes I feel like I never did, you know?"

"Then do something else," Lulu told her. "Make a little change in your life."

"I don't know… I think I'll take a break and just take care of Izzy until she goes to Hogwarts. If I see I miss healing after that, I'll go back, if not, I'll think of getting another career," Mia said. "I mean, it's not about the money. I have a bloody vault full of it. I just…"

Lulu nodded. "You want to find yourself. I understand."

"Sometimes I feel like I haven't been me ever since they arrested Sirius," she confessed.

"That's because you haven't bee you, Mia," her mother told her. "I've know you all your life and I noticed the change. Actually, the closest you are to be the Mia you used to be is when you spend time with the kids."

Mia smiled softly. She felt that too. "Maybe you're right."

Lulu raised an eyebrow. "Maybe? I am _always_ right. And now that you are planning to stay at home, maybe it is time for me to find something else to do and my own place."

Mia sighed, looking at her mother. She couldn't say she hadn't been expecting that. "You have a chronic need for independence, don't you?" she asked.

"Only when I am sure you'll do just fine without me here. You've come a long way, Mia," her mother told her. "Besides, we both know that, even if I move out, I'll spend so much time in this house that you will get sick of me. And I'll always come whenever I am needed."

"I know," Mia sighed.

"Now, you go to bed and have some rest. I can tell that you seriously need it."

"Yeah, I guess I do," Mia agreed getting up. "Aren't you going to bed too?"

Her mother shook her head. "I think I'll stay here a little longer." She showed Mia a newspaper. "House-hunting."

"Okay. Goodnight," she said as she made her way out of the room. Mia climbed up the stairs slowly and, seeing herself on the second floor, she made as little noise as possible in order not to wake the kids. Their rooms were right next to each other's, with their windows turned to the front of the house. Mia kept going up the stairs until she reached the third floor where the master bedroom, the one she had picked for herself, was.

The room was very large and, during daytime, quite well illuminated. The formally dark painted walls were covered with light wallpaper now. Mia quickly changed to her pyjamas and climbed into the large wooden four-poster bed she'd brought from her house in Wales.

Sometimes – most of the time, if she wanted to think honestly – she felt incredibly alone at night. She missed sleeping against Sirius's body and sharing his heat in the cold winter nights. Mia reached for a photograph on the bedside table that she had found in Sirius's room a few days ago. She remembered taking it. It had been in their birthday party in sixth year – exactly one year before they had gotten together. They were laughing at the camera as Sirius held a cupcake in front of her with a single candle for her to blow because there had been some problem with the cake that year. Mia sighed, putting the photo back on the bedside table and fell asleep clutching a pillow tightly. It was easier to pretend he was there that way.

---

"Wake up, Harry! It's your birthday!" Izzy told him excitedly, jumping on top of his bed and shaking him awake in the following day.

He groaned. "Go away, Iz!" he pleaded, covering his face with a pillow. _What time is it? Seven? _He thought. Only Izzy would have the nerve to wake him up before nine in his birthday. As much as he loved her just as much as a sister, at that moment he felt like she was the most annoying creature on the planet.

"Come on!" she insisted, shaking him more.

"Leave him alone, Izzy," Lulu told her granddaughter from the doorway, who gave her a disappointed look. "You can always open his Hogwarts letter by yourself," she added.

_Hogwarts Letter_ seemed to be the keywords to wake him up fully. In a sudden move, he jumped out of the bed, almost making Izzy fall down from it. "Is it here yet?" he asked Lulu frantically.

"In the kitchen," she told him.

Followed by Izzy, Harry ran to the basement as fast as he could and entered the kitchen. There, he found Kreacher preparing breakfast and Mia setting the table.

"Where is it?" he asked looking around for the letter.

"Good morning to you too," Mia told him calmly. "I was going to wish you a Happy Birthday but I guess you're more worried about," she reached for her pocket with one hand and removed a yellowish envelope from there, "this."

"Sorry," Harry apologized. "Now, can I have it? Please?"

His godmother grinned and gave him the envelope. He took a seat on one of the table's benches and opened it, removing the letter.

_Mr H. Potter_

_Second floor b__edroom_

_12 Grimmauld Place_

_Camden_

_London_

"Open it already, Harry!" Izzy told him, as she entered the kitchen and tried to peak over his shoulder – just thinking she still had to wait _two years…_

"I'm doing it. Calm down," he told her, pulling out the letter.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minevra McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

"Nice," Harry breathed.

Izzy huffed, taking a seat by the table. "Why did I have to be born in _December_? Now I have to wait _two _more years. What am I supposed to do home without Harry here? It's not fair!"

Mia shook her head, placing a plate in front of her daughter. "First of all, it's not like I can decide when you were born – you came when you were ready. Secondly, I'm sure the two of us will manage to find a way to pass time," she said before turning to Harry. "I've already sent the reply to Professor McGonagall, Harry, so you don't need to worry about that."

"When can we go buy my school supplies?" he asked.

"Well, I was thinking we could go in the afternoon," Mia told him. "Unless you have other plans…"

He shook his head immediately. "In the afternoon is great!"

"But where are we going to find all this things here in London?" Izzy asked, reading the supply list, which she had snatched from her brother. "A caudron? Dragon hide protective gloves?"

"In Diagon Alley, obviously," Mia told them.

---

Harry and Izzy had hardly ever seen so many people at the same place. The long street was so crowded with witches and wizards that it was hard to walk two yards without bumping on someone. It had taken them around half an hour to make a withdrawal from Gringotts and to finally start searching for the school supplies.

While Lulu and Izzy had gone somewhere else, to buy his birthday present, Harry suspected, he and Mia's first stop was Ollivander's, from where he got his new wand and a nasty surprise.

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather – just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother why, its brother gave you that scar," Ollivander told him.

Mia immediately shivered. "You mean _he… _You-know-who had the other wand?"

"The wand chooses the wizard, Miss Davis," Ollivander said solemnly as he handed the wand to Harry. "Just as yours chose you, this one chose your godson. Why that happens is a mystery… Though I won't deny it may be related to I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter… After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great."

After paying for the wand, Mia hurried herself and Harry out of the store, trying to get away from the old man – he had really given her the creeps by saying that about Voldemort. He was nothing but a murderer to her – someone who had killed her best friends and, at some point, she was sure, caused the man she loved to be in Azkaban.

"What does this mean?" Harry asked her nervously as they walked through the street in order to go meet Lulu and Izzy.

"It is probably nothing, Harry," she told him, even thought she wasn't so sure about it. Her job as a mother was to protect him. "A lot of people share wand cores."

"But not with _him,_" Harry told her, hesitating before saying the rest. "Does this mean I am going to be evil?" he whispered

Hearing that, Mia stopped walking and turned to him, placing her hands on his shoulders. "Harry, no matter what wand you might have, you are what you make yourself be, you hear me? It is not the wand that makes the wizard. Besides, I'll be here to pull you back into the right path if you ever start doing stupid things."

"Thank you," he said, surprised at how her words had worked on calming him down.

She gave him a little smile as they resumed walking. "No need to thank me. That is what I am here for."

"Where did Lulu and Izzy go, anyway?" Harry asked her.

"To get your birthday present, obviously," Mia told him naturally, putting one arm around his shoulder as she walked her godson to their destination. "And there it is," she announced, pointing at Izzy and Lulu, who were standing by the apothecary, the latter carrying a cage with a snowy owl inside. "Happy Birthday, Harry."

**A/N: Fourth Chapter. I hope you liked it! So, I'm done with classes until September but the exams are on their way - just wanted to say that intend to keep posting (especially because my best inspiration strikes seem to come during the exams phases, ironically), so no worries. Review!**

**P.S: I had to delete the chapter for a moment in order to fix something. Sorry!**


	5. Old Friends

**One Month Later**

"I think it's time for you two to go to bed," Mia suggested to Harry and Izzy, who were playing gobstones on the floor of the living room. "Especially you, Harry. You're going to Hogwarts tomorrow."

"Aw, Mummy," Izzy said. "Can't we stay up a little longer? He's leaving until Christmas."

"Yeah, just a little longer," Harry joined in. "I've almost beaten Iz."

"You wish," she said with a chuckle.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, sounding through the entire house. _Who on Earth would show up at someone else's house after 10 p.m.? _Mia thought. "You have half an hour," she warned the kids before getting up from the sofa and going downstairs in order to open the door. She looked though the peephole first and smiled to herself, seeing who it was. She didn't hesitate in opening the door to him.

"Hello, Remus," she greeted the visitor.

Remus Lupin smiled back at his old friend. "Hello, Mia," he responded, entering the house. "Merlin, you haven't change a bit."

"Liar," she accused him with a smile as she closed the door. "It's been ten years, of course I've changed. How are you doing?"

He shrugged. "The usual. Jumping from job to job."

"Furry little problem?" she asked.

"Obviously."

"Well, your employers are a bunch of idiots," Mia told him. "I doubt they would easily find someone as hard-working as you."

"That's something I have to live with," he mumbled. "Dumbledore managed to find me this afternoon and said you were back and could use some friends."

"Who doesn't?" she asked. "Come upstairs to the living room. We can catch up there."

He nodded and followed her. During the past ten years, Remus Lupin had barely had any contact with anybody from their group of friends. Lily, James and Peter were dead; Sirius was…well, in prison; Elizabeth was out of the country and, until that afternoon, he had no idea where Mia was.

"_Ah, gross!" _he heard a girl's voice say as he climbed up the stairs.

"_I told you I'd win,"_ a boy's voice responded in a slightly cocky tone.

Mia opened the door that led to the living room to see Izzy's arms covered with the putrid liquid the gobstones shot when somebody lost the game. "You'd better wash up before you go to bed," she warned her daughter.

"I'm gonna wash up _now_," she said, looking disgusted.

"See what I suffer? I'm always the one covered with the gooey stuff," Harry told his godsister, who glared at him.

"You owe me a rematch," she told him through her teeth.

Remus watched the scene in amusement, immediately recognizing the boy. Harry. He looked just like James did in his first year but with Lily's eyes. The girl, however, he didn't know. He could see a resemblance with Mia in her long brown hair and nose. Her bright grey eyes were also very familiar, but definitely not from Mia's side.

"Remus, you've met Harry before. The girl covered with the gooey stuff is my daughter, Izzy," she told her friend. "Kids, this is Remus Lupin. He and your fathers were best friends back in school."

"Really?" Izzy asked in amazement, a smile covering her face.

"Yeah," Mia confirmed. "Now, go wash that stuff off your arms and,Harry, take the gobstones to your room. You can come back after you're done."

"But what about my rematch?" Izzy asked.

"You have it tomorrow morning before we take Harry to the train," her mother said.

Izzy groaned before disappearing though the doorway followed by Harry.

"Sirius's?" Remus asked after they were left alone.

She smiled. "What gave it away? The eyes or the smile?"

"Both," he replied. "I can't believe, after what he's done…"

Mia's face hardened. He didn't know… "After he's done what?"

"You know very well what he did," Lupin said darkly.

"No, Remus, I don't," she told him. "Sirius was not the secret-keeper. He told me he wasn't. If he wasn't the secret-keeper, he couldn't have betrayed Lily and James. And he must certainly didn't kill those Muggles! Why would he do that for? Fun? You knew him better that that!"

Remus sat on the sofa, trying to register the information. "So, let me get this straight. Sirius wasn't the secret keeper."

"Yes," Mia confirmed. "Why would he lie about it to me?"

"Then who was it?"

"We don't know…" she stated in frustration. "I asked Sirius not to tell me – I didn't want to take any risks for Lily and James. The only thing I'm sure is that someone wanted him out of the way, so he was framed for blowing that entire street."

"You can't possibly be telling me that Sirius has been in Azkaban all this time for something he didn't do," Lupin murmured, a grim look crossing his face. Mia nodded, looking down. "Oh, dear Merlin…"

"Yeah," she agreed, sitting by his side. There was not much more to say…

"I can't believe this," he told her. "I couldn't believe he had done it in the beginning, but I ended up just accepting it. Did you ever…?"

She shook her head. "I didn't believe he had betrayed Lily and James for a single moment. I trusted and still trust Sirius unconditionally. That came with loving him," Mia told him. "Don't torture yourself for accepting that he might have done it. The Ministry did publicize his arrest a lot, according to Dumbledore. Everybody believed it."

"But he was my friend, Mia," Remus said, pacing around the room.

Before she could respond, they heard steps outside of the door, which opened seconds later as Izzy and Harry let themselves in.

"I think I got it all out, Mummy," Izzy stated, showing her arms to her mother.

"You'll just have to clean them all over again tomorrow when I wipe the floor with you again," Harry murmured her.

"Shut up," she murmured back.

"As you can see," Mia told Remus, opting to terminate their previous conversation, "they are not _that_ different from their fathers."

"Definitely not that different," he agreed, turning to Harry. "Last time I saw you, you were still learning to walk a yard without falling. I can't believe you'll be going to Hogwarts this year already."

"It's tomorrow, sir," Harry said shyly.

"Just call me Remus, Harry. Or Moony like your father used to" the man said.

"Moony?" Harry asked.

"His Marauder name," Mia specified.

Izzy's eyes opened wide and she turned to Remus. "You were a Marauder like my dad?"

Remus nodded. "Your mother told you about us?" he asked the girl. He couldn't help being surprised at the fact that Sirius had a kid. That was about the last thing he had expected when Dumbledore had told him to come visit Mia.

"Just a bit," Mia told him. "You can't really make justice to the Marauder's story if you were not one of them. I trust you will tell them the interesting version, Remus, even though you were the best-behaved."

Remus chuckled. "Maybe I will, one of these days," he said. "So, Izzy, how old are you?"

"I'll be ten next December," she said with a groan. "I still have to wait two years before I go to Hogwarts." She looked at her mother in annoyance

Mia raised an eyebrow, shaking her head – like she was to blame for that… "See how impatient she is?" she told Remus.

Remus nodded. "Yes. Just like her father."

---

They had all ended staying up until almost midnight, when Remus left. It was incredible how spending time with someone from her past would make Mia so nostalgic of her times in Hogwarts. At some point, Mia had remembered to ask about Elizabeth but Remus had told her that they had lost contact after Lily and James's funeral, whose deaths she had taken awfully hard.

"Do you have everything, Harry?" Mia asked him in the following day when they already were in the platform. "Wand, books, underwear…"

"I have everything, Aunt Mia," he assured her before she could finish.

"Now, I'd love not to get any letters from McGonagall complaining about your behaviour this term," she told him. "Do you think you can do that for me?"

"For Merlin's sake," Lulu growled. "Let the boy have some fun!"

"He can have fun without getting in trouble," Mia told her mother.

"Sure, he can," Lulu replied. "If he is good enough not to get caught." She turned to the boy right after saying that. "Don't get caught and keep track of the secret passageways. You have no idea how much they can help you."

"Lulu! Stop encouraging him!" Mia warned Lulu.

As the two women went on discussing the importance (or lack of it) of breaking the school rules, Harry turned to a depressed Izzy. "Hey, don't be like that…"

"Promise me you'll write every week," she pleaded. It was not just the fact that he was going and she was staying… she had never spend one single day apart away from Harry. He had always been around since she remembered, playing the role of a brother and a friend. What would she do for a whole year without him? _Be bored, _she thought.

"Only if you promise to write back," he told her.

"I will," she promised with a little smile.

"Alright, have a good term," Mia told him, kissing her godson's cheek before he entered the train. "Write if you need anything!"

"Bye!" Izzy yelled after him. Then she turned to her mother. "Can't I just sneak into the train?"

Mia put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Who would keep me from dying of boredom in that house if you did?"

Izzy sighed, her mother did have a point…

"_Now, you two.__ This year, you behave yourselves. If I__get one more owl telling me you've… you've blown up a__toilet or…"_ Mia heard a female, slightly familiar, voice saying. She looked around to see that that voice belonged to a short plump redhead woman that was standing by one of the train's entrances surrounded by several redhead children. And that was when Mia recognized her. That was Molly Prewett, Susan Davis's niece.

She saw as Molly gave her sons several other warnings before they made their way into the train, leaving behind a teary-eyed girl, probably their younger sister about the same age as Izzy.

Mia waited for the train to leave before she approached Molly with Izzy as Lulu excused herself to go back to her new job in _Flourish & Blots_.

"Excuse me," she told the redhead.

"Yes, dear," Molly said in a polite tone.

"You are Molly Prewett, aren't you?" Mia asked.

She nodded. "Yes, I am."

"I'm not sure if you remember me. My name is Mia Davis—"

Molly's eyes opened wide and she looked at Mia in disbelief. "Mia Davis? Merlin… it is really you. I can see it. But… I heard you were killed when your parents—"

"Dumbledore got me out of the country before the Death Eaters got to me. I came back little more than a month ago," Mia told her.

"And who is this?" the redhead asked, looking down at Izzy.

"This is my daughter, Izzy," Mia introduced.

"Oh, you have a daughter. How lovely," Molly said with a smile. "Ginny, dear, come say hello to Izzy."

The little redhead girl approached her mother, blushing furiously and mumbled a little 'hi' to Izzy, who responded equally shyly.

"I was here seeing my godson off and recognized you," Mia told her 'cousin'.

"Life has such coincidences… Is your godson a first year?" she asked, receiving a nod in return. "Oh, my Ron too. Maybe they will meet in school. Are his parents here too?"

Mia shook her head. "Molly… er… my godson is… hum… Harry Potter."

The redhead woman looked at her in surprise, while her daughter blushed even more, if that was possible. "Dear Merlin, is he? I barely remembered you were friends with Lily and James Potter. I recall seeing you all together in my brothers' funeral. The poor boy… how is he? Did you take care of him all this time?"

"Yes," she said. "I am his legal guardian. He is fine, all things considered."

Molly nodded in understanding. "Well, I hope you don't have plans for tonight because you are coming over my place for dinner. It's been years since I've seen anyone from my side of the family," she said, turning her face to Izzy and Ginny, who had at some point escaped their mothers and sat now on one of the platform's benches talking. "I think we have a friendship in the making."

Mia glanced at the two girls and smiled. "I think we do," she agreed.

**A/N: And here is another chapter - only three chapters away from the 'turning point'. Try to guess what is is - it's not that hard. Hope you liked it!**


	6. Left Behind

As months passed, Izzy ended up getting used to Harry's absence with the help of Ginny's presence. They had grown to become very good friends after meeting in Platform 9 ¾ and the fact that Molly was constantly dragging Mia to the Burrow because, in the redhead's own words _"spending all our time at home watching a kid is just not healthy"_. In fact, as the time passed, the Weasleys had grown to become a large part of their lives, sort of like an extended family to the point that, by October, Mia had let them into the secret surrounding Sirius's innocence.

Harry's very detailed letters to Izzy came every week brought by his owl, Hedwig, and they seemed to be getting more and more interesting. While the first had simply described his trip in the Hogwarts Express, making friends with Ginny's brother, Ron, and his sorting into Gryffindor, the later ones had started to include things such as Harry joining the house's Quidditch team (which, according to Ginny, _never_ happened to a first year student) and a near-death experience during his first game, being challenged to a duel with a his new archenemy, Draco Malfoy, which ended up being a trap and lead him to a meeting with a gigantic three-headed dog and, more recently, wrestling a troll during Halloween night. That last adventure had led Harry and Ron to make a new friend, Hermione Granger, who was described in Harry's 'awfully intelligent and sort of bossy but also very loyal.

And then, December 20th, the day Harry would be arriving home for his Christmas break, arrived. She had spent most of the day pacing around alone as the train was supposed to arrive only later in the afternoon. With the Weasleys going to Romania in order to spend Christmas with Charlie, Harry would probably be her only source of entertainment for the next couple of weeks. _Just like it used to be, _she thought.

"Do you think it will take long?" Izzy asked Mia when they already were in the platform.

"Not really," her mother told her. "I recall the train always arriving at six sharp."

"That's in two minutes," Izzy pointed out excitedly. She wondered why her mother hadn't done like the Weasleys, who had gotten their kids directly from Hogsmeade station, as their international portkey was leaving early.

Suddenly, it was announced that the train was about to arrive and Izzy could actually hear it approaching. She smiled, seeing the large red steam engine entering the platform. Minutes later, the students started to exit it and reuniting with their families. Izzy looked for Harry until someone called her name behind her and she saw him coming in her direction followed by a girl with brown bushy hair.

Mia was the first to reach them, giving Harry a smile. "Hey. How was your term?"

"It was great," he said excitedly and turned to the bushy haired girl. "This is my godmother, Mia and my godsister Izzy."

"Pleased to meet you both; Harry's told me a lot about you. I'm Hermione Granger," the bushy-haired girl introduced herself.

There was something on her that made Izzy believe she would like that girl. "Harry's talked a lot about you in his letters too," she said.

"Oh, he did?" she asked in surprise. "I should probably go outside the platform to meet my parents. They are muggles and still feel a little uncomfortable with being around all this magic… Have a nice Christmas. And don't forget to do your homework, Harry," Hermione told him, grabbing her truck and walking on the direction of that wall that lead outside the platform.

"Merlin forbid," he said as she disappeared from the platform.

Mia smiled down at her godson. "'Don't forget to do your homework'? Looks like you've got yourself your very own Remus Lupin, the well-behaved Marauder, Harry."

"She's just really into school-work," Harry explained. "But she used to be worse, believe me. Ron and I are working on her."

His godmother chuckles as Izzy pulled him by the arm. "Come, Harry! You have to tell me _everything_ about your term."

"I basically made you a report every letter!" he protested.

"But hearing it is better," she replied.

Mia cleared her throat. "Speaking of letters, Harry, what the hell were you thinking?! Fighting a _troll_?! Seriously, how did you and Ron manage to get yourselves in more trouble in one term than Sirius and James in a whole year?"

Harry groaned, knowing McGonagall had written to Mia in the morning that followed the incident. "We won house points for that," he pointed out. "And we saved Hermione."

"Doesn't change the fact that you could have died!" she told him. She refused to think on how she would react if _that_ happened.

"I didn't die," he stated.

"Well, you can tell that to the plates you'll be washing and the kitchen you'll be cleaning by yourself tonight," she told him. "And don't even think of asking Kreacher for help. I've already told him not to do it."

"Aunt Mia…" he tried to plead.

"Next time you think of almost getting killed, Harry, think of the plates waiting for you at home," Mia warned him. "Halloween is a date tragic enough without you getting killed by a mountain troll. How do you think we would have felt if you had died?"

Harry didn't respond. The worried expression on her face actually made him feel bad. "I'm sorry," he apologized, looking down.

She sighed, putting one arm around her godson's shoulders as they started to walk to one of the fireplaces in the platform to Floo home. "Just look for a teacher first next time you need to save somebody, alright?"

"I'll try," he said with a sigh.

Izzy, who was walking by his other side, leaned closer and whispered to him, "I told Ginny about the troll. She thought it was cool."

He chuckled. _It's good to be home, _he thought.

---

_It passed too fast, _Izzy thought, seeing the Hogwarts Express leaving again, two weeks later.

Christmas had been great. For that time, it seemed like Harry hadn't left at all. The only evidence of it were the things he was always telling her about Hogwarts, which made her more and more eager to go there.

Harry had received a very special gift that year: his father's invisibility cloak. Not mentioning it to Mia had been an understanding between him and Izzy – she wouldn't be happy knowing what Harry could possibly be doing with that thing…

By May, Mia received an owl from McGonagall, saying that her godson had been caught walking around the castle after curfew, which had gotten him into detention. Izzy had been surprise that, instead of being furious, her mother had laughed and murmured something about 'the apple not falling too far from the tree'.

It was in June, however, that all hell broke loose. Dumbledore had personally came to the house to communicate that, after a 'little adventure', Harry had ended up unconscious in the Hospital Wing.

"You are telling me that Harry faced Voldemort again?!" Mia asked the headmaster in shock. "Does that mean he is back again?"

"You know that I never believed he had ever been gone for good, Amelia," Dumbledore told her. "But he didn't have a corporeal form this time. He seemed to be possessing one of the teachers…"

"But how is Harry, really?" Mia inquired worriedly. "How hurt is he?"

"Poppy believes Harry is just in need of a long rest. I'm sure he will wake up when he's ready," Dumbledore stated. "But there is something we need to discuss, facing what has happened this year. I actually have a proposition for you, Amelia."

"A proposition?" she asked.

"A job, to be more accurate," the old headmaster told her. "I was hoping you would join our staff in Hogwarts next year. I trust having his godmother close to him would be beneficial to Harry, not to mention that this subject is in a serious need of being renewed."

"Teaching?" she asked surprised. "You want me to be the new DADA teacher? No offence, Professor, but the position is cursed!"

The headmaster shook his head. "Not DADA, even though I believe that 'curse' is nothing more than a myth. I was actually thinking of History of Magic. The students' grades have been dreadful, which leads me to believe that Professor Binns needs to enjoy his eternal rest some way other than teaching. I recall you doing quite good in that particular subject."

"I don't know, Professor," Mia said, unsure. "I just had a really good memory… And Lulu was always a great storyteller. I am not sure I will do a good job teaching…"

"Nonsense, Amelia," he told her. "You were always an excellent student. I recall you and Miss Harper tutoring Mr. Pettigrew a couple of times with positive results. I understand you have been having some doubts concerning your career as a Healer. Maybe teaching will turn out to be your answer if you give it a try, don't you think?"

"But what about my daughter?" she inquired. "I don't feel comfortable staying away from her for so long…"

Dumbledore nodded in understanding. "Minerva and I have had that discussion when I suggested hiring you as a teacher and we have both agreed that keeping you away from her wouldn't be right," the headmaster said. "If I recall, young Isabelle will turn eleven this December, which, in normal circumstances, would have her waiting another year to enrol in Hogwarts but I think we may be able to open one exception and let her enrol this September."

Mia looked at him surprise. Izzy wouldn't shut up about it for the rest of the summer… "Do you think the board would accept this?"

"If the request is well-fundamented, I believe the board would," Dumbledore told her. "In fact, Amelia, Minerva and I think that you and Isabelle being in Hogwarts would solve another problem concerning your safety now that Lord Voldemort made an appearance. I am sure you remember that you may have been made a target eleven years ago."

She looked at him fearful. "You think they will come after us?"

"You can never be too careful," he simply said. "But I believe you will two will be safe both in Hogwarts and this place. So, Amelia, what do you say? Do you accept becoming a teacher and having your daughter enrolling in Hogwarts next year?"

"_What?!" _

Mia turned to the door and saw her daughter standing there on in her pyjamas, looking at them wide-eyed. "Izzy!" she said. "You're supposed to be in bed! Have you been listening to us?"

"I was going to the kitchen and I heard you talking," Izzy told her before turning to Dumbledore. "I can go to Hogwarts next year?"

"I take it you like this proposition, Miss Black," he replied

"I do!" she confirmed and turned to her mother. "Please, Mummy! Please accept it!"

"Izzy, I need time to think."

"You are always telling me how wonderful Hogwarts was to you and how happy you were in here with Dad," the young girl told her mother. "What is there to think about?"

"Izzy…" Mia sighed, defeated. Izzy was right. Hogwarts had probably been the place where she had spent the happiest times of her life and going back shouldn't be something she needed to evaluate. Maybe it was time she stopped thinking and go along with it. "Alright, I accept."

Izzy threw herself to her mother in a hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Don't make me regret this," Mia warned her in a low voice. "Harry already gives me enough trouble by himself."

Her daughter laughed. "I'll make sure we settle a share of trouble between ourselves."

Mia glared and the headmaster coughed. "Very well. I'd also like to discuss something else with you both," Dumbledore told them as Izzy took a seat by her mother's side. "As you know, the Blacks were very well-known in the Wizarding World for their… dark affiliations. I wanted to suggest that Isabelle should use her mother's surname at least until Sirius's name is cleared." He looked at easy and saw the girl's face fall. "I know it probably doesn't feel right, but your name would call too much attention, Isabelle. And attention coming from the wrong sources can be dangerous. You will still be Isabelle Black. You just won't be known as such."

"But it's just… _lying_," Izzy said in a sad tone.

Dumbledore looked at Mia, silently telling her it was time for her to takeover. She kneeled in front of her daughter and grasped her hands. "Sweetheart, nobody would blame you for lying to protect yourself… well, not when it concerns something like this. I am sure that your father wouldn't mind this happening – keeping us safe would be his top priority."

Izzy really didn't like that. But then again, it wasn't really lying, was it? Her mother's last name was Davis – she could very well be a Davis too… _It's just a name, _she tried to convince herself. "Okay, I'll do it," she accepted.

"Very well." Dumbledore got up and removed a letter from his robes, handing it to Izzy. "That's your acceptance letter, Miss _Davis_," he told her. "Now, I assume you and your mother want to go see Harry…"

**A/N: Alright, next chapter will be the last before the real thing - and by real thing I mean with a certain figitive there - starts. I was thinking of posting sooner than usual (which would be handy for me because I have an exam next wednesday...) but that might mean that you'd have to wait a little longer for the next posting. So, what do you think: should I post as usual or do you want the next chapter earlier? It's really up to you.**


	7. Photograph

**July**** 24****th**** 1993**

Mia felt like her skin was boiling under the Egyptian sun. She wondered how on earth the kids were capable of chasing each other all over the dunes with a temperature as high as forty degrees… Going to Egypt with the Weasleys (Bill and Charlie included) had seemed like a good idea after the events of the past year.

After a sudden appearance of a house-elf, Dobby, in Grimmauld Place trying to 'save' Harry by framing him for using underage magic (which, thanks to the house's wards) so he wouldn't go back to Hogwarts, the school year had started badly enough by itself with her godson and Ron using Arthur Weasley's car in order to fly themselves to Hogwarts because they allegedly hadn't been able to walk though the wall that lead to Platform 9 ¾. They had ended up missing the feast and Izzy and Ginny's sorting into Gryffindor, not to mention getting a few nights of detention scrubbing trophies.

Then, in the following Halloween the attacks by the 'Heir of Slytherin' had started with Mrs. Norris being petrified, followed by a few students as the months passed, Hermione Granger included. Everyone seemed to suspect that Harry might be the heir because of an unfortunate incident when he had accidentally revealed himself to be a perselmouth, a common train among the descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Mia had told him over and over that it was highly unlike he was in any way related to Slytherin but that didn't seem to make him feel any better.

Not long after Christmas, Izzy had had some sort of row with Ginny because all of a sudden she had started to avoid Harry and pretty much everyone who was friends with him, Izzy included. That had led her to the conclusion that her best friend also suspected him to be the heir. Because of that, Izzy had promptly stopped talking to Ginny saying that she didn't, in her own words, 'deal with people who thought her brother was some sort of psychopath'.

After that, Lucius Malfoy had managed to get Dumbledore to be suspended… Long story short, despite the fact that Mia loved teaching, all those events gave her one hell of a headache and her first year as a member of Hogwarts' staff hadn't been exactly the most pleasant experience of her life.

But nothing beat what happened the night exactly two months before. The whole thing had started when Ginny Weasley had been taken to the Chamber of Secrets, which caused panic all over the school. Mia had thought it would be best if she told Harry, Izzy and Ron personally about that but, to her surprise, none of the two boys was in the common room or anywhere to be seen, for that matter. Izzy had sworn she had no idea where they were, which only alarmed Mia more.

So, for the hours that followed, Mia had been searching for them all over the castle and worrying sick until McGonagall had found her at the dungeons and informed her that Harry and Ron had, in fact, gone to the Chamber of Secrets in order to save young Ginny Weasley. She couldn't believe it, so she begged the old teacher to tell her that was some sort of sick joke because her godson couldn't possibly be reckless enough to _go into the Chamber of secrets willingly_.

But he had. And he had saved Ginny, to the school's and the Weasley's eternal gratitude, which hadn't kept him from hearing from his godmother.

"_What am I going to do with you, Harry?" she asked him in a whisper. "Do you have any idea of how worried I was when I saw you were gone?"_

_The young boy looked down. "I'm sorry that I worried you, Aunt Mia," he told her. "But I am not sorry I went to the chamber. Ginny would be dead if I hadn't. It was…"_

"_I know who it was, Harry," she interrupted him. Dumbledore had mentioned it on his way out of the room: Voldemort had been possessing Ginny for almost the whole school year and made her do the attacks herself. "I am proud, Harry. I can't say that I'm not. You saved someone's life, after all. But you could have died! The last thing I want to do is to attend your or Izzy's funeral. Parents shouldn't bury their children. According to what I heard, you were bitten by a basilisk tonight. Do you know how lucky you are for having survived? There's no cure by phoenix tears. What if Fawkes hadn't shown up?"_

_Harry looked at her. "I'm really sorry," he told her again._

_Mia sighed. She could hear the remorse in his voice and just couldn't stay mad anymore. "Come here," she said, opening her arms. He gave her a small smile and got up, approaching her and letting his godmother wrap him with a tight motherly hug. "You're going to be the death of me one of these days, Harry James Potter."_

"_I'm not that bad," he protested._

_She laughed__. "In what comes to scaring me death, believe me, you are."_

From then on, things had started to fix themselves: the whispers all around the school about Harry being the heir had subsided, Izzy and Ginny were friends again after they had apologized to each other over and over, Lucius Malfoy ended up sacked from Hogwarts' board of governors and, well, Lockhart's insanity had became visible to everyone. _Serves him right for having tried to attack Harry and Ron, _Mia thought.

After that very… emotional year, Mia had decided that she needed a vacation if she wanted to be sane enough to return to another year teaching in Hogwarts. And Molly Weasley's invitation to come with her family to Egypt in order to pay Bill Weasley a visit had come just in the right time.

So, at the moment, Mia was standing under the burning Egyptian sun just a few yards from a pyramid – an actual pyramid. Izzy and Ginny, who stood by her side, were looking up at it in wonder.

"Wow, they're a lot bigger than I imagined," Izzy pointed out.

"Bill said they look even better in the inside," Ginny told her. Her face was several shades redder than usual, practically matching her hair – mixing redheads with sun was definitely not such a good idea.

"Lulu said there might be mummies," she replied excitedly. Lulu had needed to stay in England because, now that Hogwarts' students were receiving their letters, there was a lot of movement in Flourish & Blots. "I bet Percy would run away screaming if we saw one."

"Don't you think Fred and George are torturing him enough?" Mia asked her daughter with an eyebrow rose.

Izzy shrugged. "I can never have too much fun at Percy's acount. At least he keeps him for shouting to the skies he is the Head Boy this year."

"All Egypt must know by now…" Ginny pointed out with a nod.

Mia rolled her eyes. She should have known what she was getting herself into by having Sirius's kid… She shook her head as Harry and Ron approached them.

"When do we get to visit the pyramid?" Harry asked. "We've been here for almost an hour."

"We're waiting for a reporter from the Daily Prophet to arrive," Mia told him. "The ministry wants to publicise Arthur's bonus and they need a family picture."

"But we've arrived two days ago," Ron pointed out. "One would think they'd have done it already."

Ginny snorted. "They probably have better news to spread than us being in Egypt, Ron. They were probably waiting for a slow day."

And they waited another quarter of hour. It seemed to get hotter by the minute and, being noon, there was practically no shadow to cover them.

"_Put that down! Put that down!" _they suddenly heard Percy yelling while he ran from the twins as one of them held what seemed to be a scorpion.

_Here we go, _Mia thought. That little routine was sort of funny, actually: the twins would do something to Percy, he would cower, Molly would yell and the twins would make some sort of joke.

"_Fred! George! Leave your brother alone!"_ Molly Weasley shouted at her two sons, stepping in front of the two of them with her hands on her hips. _"What is that you're… Is that a scorpion?! Put that thing down! Are you insane?!_"

"_Aw, Mum. __It has a name. Ernie," _one them said, poking it on his brother's hands.

"_Don't act like he's dangerous or anything,"_ the other added.

"_It's a scorpion! Of course it is dangerous!" _she yelled. _"Put that thing down! Are you trying to get yourselves killed?!"_

"_Mum, it'__s a fake," _Charlie said, approaching them. _"They got it from a muggle joke shop near the hotel. They're just messing with Perce."_

"As I said, you can never have too much at Percy's account," Izzy whispered to Ginny with a laugh as she watched the Percy still hiding behind his mother.

"Merlin, just look at his face," Ginny added.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a crack and an overly clothed old man suddenly apparated near them. The man cleared his throat roughly. "Are you the…" he stopped for a moment, reaching for a crumpled paper in his pocket and reading it "…Weasleys?"

"Yes," Arthur said, stepping closer to him. "Are you the reporter?"

The man nodded. "Alright, let's just take the picture. My portkey back is leaving in ten minutes."

Mia raised an eyebrow. _Attentive,_ she thought sarcastically. While Molly called the children to take the picture, Mia did her best to keep herself, Izzy and, mainly, Harry out of the reporter's attention – the last thing her godson needed was more publicity.

They stood by the pyramid watching the family of redheads smile at the camera. Arthur and Molly, Percy, Bill and Charlie were on the back, while Ron, Ginny and the twins sat on the sand in the front with Scabbers, the rat, on Ron's shoulder.

As the photograph was taken, Mia had no idea how important it would be to her future… because it was the same photo that would convince a certain prisoner to escape.

---

He heard the whispers echoing all over the corridor. People muttering to themselves. Nutcases. Sometimes he wished he was just as mental as they were – it might make everything easier, though it would certainly not keep the cold away.

One would think Sirius Black would have gotten used to it after twelve years in that forsaken hole… It always got worse when the Dementors approached. But he had his own way of fighting them – thinking of her. Of Mia. He would imagine they were simply in their apartment living ridiculously happy. That idea kept him warm in the inside and sane – she was the only reason he hadn't let himself dive into madness. He had made her a promise and, in Merlin's name, he would keep it.

Then, he heard a voice – not whispers but a real voice. "_Bloody inspections. The worse part of the job._" Sirius checked on the scratches he had made on the wall to track as the months passed – he had long gave up on tracking the days as there were too many to count. So, he used the moon to count the months. If he had done it right, it was probably July or August, around the time Fudge, the bloody arsehole who had sent him to Azkaban even before he had became a thick-headed minister, came around to do the inspections to the prison.

The steps came closer and closer and the voices got louder – Fudge had a couple of aurors with him, he always did. It was usually Dawlish and some rookie. Inspection days were good in a way because the Dementors didn't get so close – they had orders not to harass the minister.

And then, Fudge came into view: short and grey haired as always but mostly characterized by his bizarre way of dressing. "Minister Fudge," Sirius said in a bored tone.

Fudge looked at him surprised and grasped the newspaper in his hand. Sirius guessed he had that reaction because there weren't many prisoners in Azkaban who could speak coherently. "Black. How… hum… how are you doing?"

"Same as always," he replied with sarcasm and looked at the newspaper. That might be a slight chance of entertainment. "Are you gonna need that?"

"What? Oh…er, the newspaper? Want to keep track of the news?" the minister asked. "Won't serve you much in here."

Sirius shrugged. "Miss doing the crosswords."

"Hum, alright," Fudge said, slipping the folded newspaper though the bars. "Have fun."

"Yeah, a bloody blast," he replied sarcastically as the man left. _Didn't change a bit, _he thought. _Still an idiot._

He unfolded the paper and, first of all, read the date: July 25th 1993. He made the math in his head and concluded that, as he been arrested in October 31st 1981, in a few days there would have passed 4500 days since he had last seen Mia. So long…

Shaking the thought out of his head, Sirius returned his attention to the headline of the newpaper: MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE. _Slow day,_ he concluded. If they were using an article like that in the front page, certainly there weren't better news. Behind the headline was a moving black and white picture with a family waving. And then, he saw him.

Sirius gasped, straightening himself up. He had seen Peter Pettigrew too many times in his Animagus form not to recognize him. That bastard. He wasn't even dead! Wormtail had been hiding for twelve years as a garden rat while he had spent that time in Azkaban paying for his crime. He had spent twelve years away from Mia and the responsible for that was still alive.

_Not for long, _Sirius thought.

The decision was suddenly made. It was time. He had been wondering for a few weeks if the Dementors would notice him escaping in his dog form. It was time to test that theory. He needed to get out of there.

And then, he would commit the murder he had been imprisoned for.

**A/N: And here is Sirius's first apearance... I told you he'd show up eventually. Now, is when this fic is really starting. Well, I have two exams this week - I need to go back to studying. Wish me luck!**


	8. Escape

Two days before Harry's birthday and after their week in Egypt, Mia, Izzy and Harry finally flooed back from the Burrow, whore the portkey had landed them, to Grimmauld Place's kitchen. Mia had to admit she had missed that house – she had actually grown into it after the whole gloomy effect and cursed objects had been removed two years ago.

However, to her surprise, Lulu stepped into the kitchen just as she heard them flooing. Wasn't she supposed to be at work? The bookstore was probably packed with people at this time of the year. "Er, hi, Lu," she greeted her.

"Hey, how were the vacations?" the older woman asked in a forced cheery voice. Mia knew her mother enough to be sure that she was worried about something – and Lulu wasn't the kind of person who would just worry about anything…

"They were great, Lulu!" Izzy told her grandmother excitedly. "Ginny and I got to ride a camel and we visited the pyramids!"

"And the twins tried to shut Percy in a tomb," Harry added with a laugh – he wouldn't ever forget how ridiculous that situation had been… "I can still hear him yelling."

Lulu smiled. "Well, I am hoping for more detailed reports later at dinner," she told them. "But how about you go upstairs and take your trucks to your rooms? I need to talk to your mum for now."

They didn't need to be geniuses to understand that Lulu didn't want them to hear whatever she was going to tell Mia and they also knew that there was no use trying to eavesdrop because Lulu was very good with imperturbable charms… Believing they'd end up knowing anyway, Harry and Izzy obediently left the room and climbed up the stairs with their trucks in a tow.

"What happened?" Mia asked her mother after she made sure they wouldn't be heard.

"Maybe you should sit down, Mia…" Lulu suggested, approaching the kitchen counter and grabbing what seemed to be a folded newspaper. She took a deep breath before unfolding it and showing it to her daughter, who was now sitting by the table.

Mia's reaction was immediate. She gasped as she saw the photograph on the cover and read the headline, her eyes opening very wide. She looked up at her mother, who nodded. _BLACK ESCAPES,_ she read again. "When… when did this happen?" Mia managed to ask.

"Sometime between last night and this morning. The Dementors only noticed around 4 a.m., according to the article," Lulu explained. "Everyone is in a panic. The ministry has put practically their whole personnel after him. And they say the Dementors may be involved in the search too."

She couldn't believe it. Sirius had escaped. Part of her was happy while the other was terrified: even though he was out of there, out of the Dementors' influence, he was also at large. Merlin knew what they would do to him if they caught him – probably give him the kiss. And then, she'd lose him forever. _No, no, that can't happen. Merlin, don't let that happen! He's innocent! _

"Mia, say something," her mother told her. "You know how badly you react to bottling stuff inside."

"What am I supposed to say?" Mia asked in frustration. "I don't even know what to think, Lulu! What if they catch him? How on earth am I going to tell the kids this?"

Lulu nodded understandingly. "I'll tell them, don't worry. Dumbledore has owled me. He asked me to tell you to go to Hogwarts as soon as you can."

_What now? _She thought. "Did he say what he wanted?" she asked faintly.

Her mother shook her head. "Just go there. I'll watch Izzy and Harry."

Mia sighed and got up from her chair – she seriously hoper Dumbledore had good news for her own sanity…

---

She hadn't been surprised to see Hagrid waiting for her at the school's gates in order to let her in – Dumbledore always remembered to get everything done. What had, in fact, surprised her was finding Cornelius Fudge sitting in Dumbledore's office when she arrived. What on Earth was the Minister of Magic doing there?

The headmaster gave Mia an apologetic look before announcing her presence. "Amelia, thank you for coming," he said in a formal tone. "I'm not sure if you have met the Minister of Magic before."

"Not in person," she replied shortly as she approached him. "Minister."

"Miss Davis," he replied, stretching his arm in her direction in a greeting gesture. Mia accepted the hand rather reluctantly, although she made her best effort not to show it. "Albus was just telling me how the students' grades have increased severely now that you have replaced Professor Binns. I have to admit I couldn't pay much attention to him myself."

Dumbledore coughed and gestured for Mia to occupy the other chair in his office, which she promptly did. "Amelia, you must be wondering why I have asked you to come here today—"

"Actually," Fudge interrupted, looking at Mia, "I am the one who requested you were called here and should be apologizing for interrupting your summer break."

"Can we just get to the point?" Mia said, sounding impatient. She really didn't feel like having some sort of friendly chat with that man. "I've got the kids waiting for me."

Fudge looked at her surprised for a moment before taking a deep breath. "As you know, Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban."

She was awfully close to give him some sort of sarcastic remark but opted for a simple nod.

"Well," Fudge continued, "it's no secret that you, Miss Davis, and Black were… involved at the time of his arrest. Some even wonder if your child's father isn't Black himself."

That made her completely give up acting politely towards the minister. "Isabelle's paternity is none of your business," Mia told him in annoyance. "Yes, Sirius and I were involved. And, let me guess, you think I'm hiding him."

"I've never said such a thing, Miss Davis," the minister replied diplomatically.

"But that is exactly what you are thinking," she countered harshly. "I'm not stupid, Minister. I know when I am being accused of something."

"Miss Davis, you have to understand…"

"Cornelius," Dumbledore interrupted, intervening for the first time. "I can attest on Amelia's behalf that she has just arrived from a week-long trip to Egypt with the Weasleys. You can check in the Department of International Travelling that her portkey arrived less than half an hour ago. What time would that give Amelia to hide a fugitive in her house?"

"I am not accusing anyone of anything!" Fudge told in frustration. "I was just wondering if, with their past, Miss Davis knew of anything."

_Same thing, _Mia thought. "I'm not a seer minister. I haven't heard a thing from him and I'm not hiding Sirius." _And if I did, I'd never let you know, _she added in her thoughts.

Fudge coughed. "Speaking of hiding, we don't have any registration in the ministry of where you live, Miss Davis. Are you by any chance doing it on purpuse?"

_You can bet I am, _she thought. Nevertheless, Dumbledore replied before Mia could. "Amelia has inherited her parent's house in Wales, Cornelius. You'll see she doesn't have any other property in her name. I hope that answers your question."

_Smart, _she thought. Dumbledore hadn't said a single lie in the past sentences. But he hadn't said the truth either.

"I was under the impression that the old Davis house was uninhabited," the minister said dubiously.

Mia beat Dumbledore this time. "We like to live discreetly. I'm sure you understand that I try to give my godson as mush privacy as I can, which would be hard if reporters knew where Harry Potter lived."

Fudge seemed to believe her this time and nodded. "A smart move," he said simply. "And, about young Harry, we managed to contain this information from the press but I'm afraid that as his guardian you ought to know. Some say that, starting a couple of days before he escaped, Black mumbled something concerning the late Lily and James Potter and about killing someone while he slept. We're afraid his target might be your godson."

She was torn between strangling Fudge and laughing in his face. The man had to be insane. Sirius would want to kill Harry in the day hell froze – that was something she was sure of. The fact that someone might think otherwise was just ridiculous. "And why would he want to do that?"

"Because young Harry destroyed his Master, obviously," Fudge stated. "Maybe we should place Harry under a tight security. And visitations to Hogsmeade while Black is at large are just out of question…"

"_Excuse me!_" Mia said, getting up with fury all over her face. "I am not going to deprive my godson of his life just because you _think _Sirius is after him, which I sincerely doubt myself. Harry is _my_ son, _my _ward, so _I_ get to decide."

"Miss Davis, that is highly irresponsible of you," Fudge countered. "He needs protection!"

"He _has _protection," Mia told him. "He had all the protection he needs in Hogwarts and with me around. Harry will get to go to Hogsmeade like my daughter will get to go next year. Why don't you go back to worry about sending people to Azkaban without a trial and let _me_ take care of _my_ family?"

"Miss Davis…"

"It's my final decision," she told him firmly, sitting down again. "If that is all, Minister, I think we're done."

Fudge turned to Dumbledore for backup, who shook his head in return. "Amelia is right in this one, Cornelius. You're stepping into matters that don't concern you."

Looking slightly furious, the minister got up from his seat. "Well. It seems like we're done, indeed. Miss Davis, Dumbledore," he said in a cold tone, giving the two of them nods before he turned around and exited the office.

The headmaster turned to Mia with a small smile. "It seems clear that you don't like Minister Fudge."

"I don't like anyone who occupies a high place in the ministry," she replied. "Especially those involved in Sirius's arrest."

He nodded. "I understand, Amelia. But you were very close to reveal to Cornelius that your allegiances are to Sirius. You understand that that can't happen, don't you? He'd have you tailed like a criminal. You need to be very careful."

Mia sighed – he was right. If Fudge had her tailed, she'd have no chance in hiding Sirius if he did come to her. "I'm sorry. I just… I have a lot in my head right now. Do you have any more news about him since this morning?"

"Nothing relevant," Dumbledore declared. "There have been a few sightings all over the country and a few overseas, but I doubt any of them is real. The magical population is in a panic – if they see anyone suspicious, they immediately believe it is the maniac Sirius Black. In fact, Cornelius visited Azkaban a few days ago and noted that Sirius seemed to be remarkably sane in there. Just bored."

She couldn't help laughing softly – that sounded like the Sirius she knew… "And what Fudge said about him wanting to kill someone? It can't be Harry! Sirius loved him; he'd never try to hurt him."

"I agree," the headmaster told her. "Considering he had been mumbling Lily and James Potter's names, I have been thinking that he may very well be talking about the person who betrayed them to Voldemort."

"That would make sense," Mia mumbled. "And we still have no idea who it was…"

---

On her way back home, Mia flooed from Dumbledore's office to Grimmauld Place's kitchen. She used her hands to brush the ashes out of her hair and her clothes before exiting the division and going upstairs. She found Harry, Izzy and Lulu sitting on the living room's sofa waiting for her to come back.

"Oh, there you are," Lulu said. "Do you need anything?"

Mia shook her head. "You can go back to work but make you sure you come back after the book shop closes."

The older woman nodded as she got up. "I'll be here around eight," she promised before giving her daughter a quick hug and hurrying out of the room.

"Is it true?" Izzy asked her mother in a slightly satisfied tone. "Daddy managed to escape from prison?"

Mia took a seat between her and Harry before nodding. "It's true."

"Lulu said never had managed to escape before," Harry said. "How did he do it?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Is he coming here to see us?" Izzy asked hopefully. "I want him to come. I want to be with him."

Mia sighed. "I don't know if he is coming here, sweetie. It's too risky. He could get caught." _Oh Merlin, I have to tell them now._ It was inevitable that they found out the truth about how Azkaban really was, about the Dementors. She needed to tell them herself… "I need to talk to you about something." She took a deep breath before starting to talk. "Azkaban is not… it is not like those prisons you see in muggle TV."

Her daughter's face shifted to a confused expression. "What do you mean? People are not in cells there?"

Mia shook her head. "No, they are in cells. But there is a special kind of guards there. Dementors. They… they are not easy creatures to be around of."

"Why?" Izzy asked.

She took a deep breath before answering. _Here it goes… _"They feed on the prisoner's happiness. That is why most of them are driven insane," Mia told her, seeing her daughter's face shift to horror. "Calm down, Dumbledore's just told me that your father was alright in there. The minister saw him a few days go and he said he didn't seem insane at all."

Izzy gulped. It was just… horrible. She had always felt bad for the fact that her father had to be in that place but she had no idea how horrible it really was. Knowing he had escaped suddenly became a much bigger relief. "Do you think they'll catch him and send him back there? To the Dementors?"

"You heard what Lulu said. Nobody was ever capable of escaping Azkaban before, Izzy," Mia told her daughter, working as hard as she could on keeping her voice calm. Merlin knew she was asking all those questions to herself too. "I think that if your father was smart enough to do it, he may very well be smart enough to keep himself from being caught."

"I want to see him," the young girl whispered. "I really want to see my dad. I never got to meet him before."

Mia pulled her daughter closer and kissed the top of her head. "You will, sweetie. I promise you will even if I have to go hunt him myself. But I think he'll be the one to come to us. He always does." She felt Izzy nodding against her side. Suddenly, Mia noted that Harry hadn't made any question yet – she knew he was supposed to be bombarding them with questions by now or, at the very least, seem surprised… and she knew him enough to know why he hadn't. "Izzy, why don't you go downstairs to the kitchen and see if Kreacher had something sweet down there? It will make you feel better. Harry and I will join you there in a minute."

Izzy nodded faintly before getting up and leaving the room. After she was gone, Mia turned to her godson. "You've been pretty quiet. You already knew, didn't you?"

Harry sighed. "Yeah, I did. I found out in the end of last year. You know, when Hagrid was arrested. Ron told me the basics and, after we talked to Hermione on the ride back, she filled us with the rest she had read about them," he explained. "I didn't tell you that I knew because I didn't want to upset you, Aunt Mia."

"Harry, you could have told me anyway," she said softly, looking down at him worriedly. "You can always tell me anything. I'm here to help you."

"I know," Harry replied. "They are going to give him the kiss if they catch him, aren't they?"

Mia nodded sadly in response. "And the worst of it is that they will keep punishing the wrong man."

"I won't tell Izzy," he promised. "It would just upset her. But Sirius will be fine. He got out of Azkaban, didn't he? He can't be worse outside then he was there."

His godmother nodded and gave him a small smile. She trusted Sirius. And she believed he would find a way not to be caught. She had to believe it for her own sake.

**A/N: Here it is - he has officially escaped now! I've just arrived from one of my exams and felt like posting. Now, what do you think of the turn I'm giving this? Review!**


	9. Freezing Cold

It was barely daytime when Mia got up at September 1st. Waking up that early was sort of becoming a habit these days – she just couldn't stay in bed knowing that the Daily Prophet might bring fresh news about Sirius.

Dressing a thin robe over her pyjamas, she made her way down the stairs as silently as she could – it was still too early to wake Harry or Izzy as well. Kreacher was already in the kitchen when she reached it – he seemed to have an internal clock that made him know exactly when somebody woke up at that house.

"Newspaper is on the table, Mistress," he announced as he stood on top of a bench by the stove preparing the eggs for breakfast.

"Thank you, Kreacher," she said hurriedly, sitting by the long table and unfolding the newspaper. And Sirius's picture looked back at her again. _BLACK STILL AT LARGE_, the title said, to her relief. She read the article thoroughly and, between the horrid descriptions of Sirius's alleged crimes and supposed insanity, there was a mention that he had been seen at Isle of Anglesey in Wales, which was exactly where the old Davis house was located.

She wondered for a second if he had gone there looking for her. _Probably_, she thought. He had no idea she hadn't stepped a foot in that place for the past decade. But, as much as the idea of him looking for her warmed her in the inside, she wished he hadn't taken that risk – it didn't take a genius to know that, since their conversation in Hogwarts around a month before, Fudge had her supposed home under vigilance at least until she left to Hogwarts again. To make sure the house seemed slightly inhabited, she had asked Kreacher to pop there from time to time to make some noise and turn on and off a few lights.

"Any news?" someone asked behind her suddenly, giving her a fright.

She turned to see Izzy standing there. "Merlin, don't sneak on me like that, Izzy. Shouldn't you still be sleeping? It's barely seven."

"Sorry," her daughter apologized, sitting by Mia's side. "I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. Are there any news about Daddy?"

"He was seen in Wales but the aurors didn't get to him in time," she told her.

Izzy nodded silently and leaned her head against Mia's shoulder. "You lived in Wales," she mumbled. "Do you think…?"

"Yes," Mia replied simply, wrapping one arm around her daughter's form. "Izzy, are you ready to go back to Hogwarts this year?"

The young girl shrugged, lifting her head from her mother's shoulder. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

Mia sighed. She had been worried about how Izzy would do in Hogwarts ever since Sirius's escape. "Sweetie, you know that at Hogwarts everybody believes your dad is guilty. They will be talking about him all around and, even though they have no idea you are his daughter, they may say things about him that will upset you; especially when you couldn't say anything against them."

"I'll ignore it," Izzy said, trying to get away from the subject. She didn't want to think of it – it would be bad enough when she had to go through those things.

Her mother nodded. "You know the truth, Izzy. That's all that matters. You can talk to me or to Harry or to the Weasleys about it if you want. We know it too." Mia knew Izzy was strong; incredibly strong for her age. But she needed to make sure she knew she was not alone, just as she had done with Harry in the previous night.

"I know," she replied.

---

After hearing Molly giving the usual you'd-better-not-get-in-trouble speech to her children, Mia boarded the train along with the kids, who went looking for a compartment in the back, while she was headed to the front of it, where the compartment reserved for the staff was located. It was true she could just apparate in Hogsmeade and go directly to the school but the train ride always tended to bring back memories – happy memories.

However, when she arrived to the compartment, Mia couldn't help being surprised. "What on earth are you doing here?" she asked the other occupant after she opened the sliding door.

"I think I have finally found an employer who doesn't care about my furry little problem," Remus Lupin replied with a smile.

Mia shook her head in disbelief as she entered and settled on the seat in front of him. "I guess we are going to be co-workers this year, then. Let me guess, DADA?" He nodded. "You could have said something, you know? We don't lay eyes on you since last Christmas."

"I thought I'd make you all a surprise," he told her with a smile. "How are Harry and Izzy?"

"Good," Mia told him. "They'll be thrilled to have you as their teacher, though I have to warn you Harry tends to get in more trouble than it is healthy."

Remus chuckled. "Well, that's expected, coming from a Marauder's son."

Mia raised an eyebrow. "He went down to the Chamber of Secrets last year and killed a basilisk in order to save a friend of his," she specified. "I don't think that any of you went this far when we were in school."

He stared at her in surprise. "You're kidding. The Chamber of Secrets is just a myth."

She shook her head. "I wish… Dumbledore managed to keep the whole thing away from the press, thank Merlin."

Remus nodded slowly. "Speaking of press… I heard about Sirius. How are you doing?"

She shrugged. "I'm alright. At least he is out of the hole, which is an improvement. But I'm concerned about the kids, especially Izzy. Harry is used to rumours and people commenting and, well, seems to be able to handle that but I'm not sure about her. Hearing people badmouthing her father…"

"Won't be easy," Remus finished for her. "If she is half as brave as you and Sirius, she'll be just fine, Mia. Did he try to contact you in any way?"

"Not that I know of," she said with a sigh. "But he was seen near my old house this morning. Merlin, I wish I could help him, Remus. But he can't come near me. Not while Fudge is convinced that I am helping him. He has people watching my old house in Wales. Just thinking he might have been caught this morning makes me sick."

He nodded. "Sirius is smart. He probably noticed they were watching the house and will stop looking for now."

"He'd better, Remus."

---

Izzy and Ginny had been planning to sit with Harry, Ron and Hermione during the train ride but, when they saw Luna Lovegood sitting alone in a compartment, they changed their plans. Despite her odd beliefs and, sometimes, awkward interventions, the two girls found Luna quite nice. During their fight in the previous year, Izzy had sat with the blonde girl during their potions class and, to her surprise, in one of the classes Luna had revealed that she believed Harry was not the Heir of Slytherin. Of course, she had promptly accused a creature whose name Izzy couldn't recall to be responsible for the attacks on the students. But it was nice to know she believed in Harry, anyway.

"Hey, Luna. Do you mind if we sit here with you?" Izzy asked as she opened the compartment's door.

Luna closed the magazine she had been reading and put it on the seat by her side before smiling at them. "Sure, come in. Oh, hi, Ginny," she greeted the redhead when she saw her following Izzy inside.

"Hi, Luna," Ginny replied with a smile as she and Izzy occupied the seats in front of the blonde girl. When they were little Ginny and Luna had had a few pay dates as their houses were near each other. However, after Mrs. Lovegood's death, Luna and her father seemed to distance themselves from everyone, sinking into their own odd little world. "How was your summer?"

"Good," she replied in her usual dreamy voice. "Daddy and I went to Greece looking for Umgubular Slashkilters."

"Oh, that's… that's nice," Izzy said, unsure of what to say. "Did you… hum… find any?"

Luna shook her head. "They are said to be very timid. But we had a nice time, anyway."

"That's good," Ginny said. "My family went to Egypt this year. Izzy came too."

"Oh, you didn't feel like your brain was fuzzy while you were there, did you? Because that might have been a Wrackspurt attacking you – I heard they float inside the tombs," she said worriedly, observing them closely.

Izzy bit her inner lip to keep herself from laughing. That would be a lack of consideration – poor Luna was actually worried. "I don't think we were, Luna. But thanks for warning us anyway. We'll be careful about them next time."

"You're welcome," the blonde girl told her with a smile.

Glancing at the magazine by Luna's side, _The Quibbler_, Izzy noticed something that made her curious. In the list of titles of the articled in the magazine, there was one about her father. And, even more strangely, in front of his name there was the word 'guilty' followed by a question mark. _Interesting, _Izzy thought. "Hum, Luna, do you mind if I take a look at your magazine?"

The blonde girl shook her head and passed it to her. "Are you looking for the Sirius Black article?" Luna asked.

Izzy raised an eyebrow. "How did you know?"

Luna shrugged. "It was very… talked about. My dad wrote it himself," she said. "It is in page 12."

"Thanks," Izzy said. Ginny sat closer to her, also curious about the article. She found the page, and turned excitedly to the article. The headline on the article said:

_«For twelve years Sirius Black has been believed guilty of the mass murder of twelve innocent Muggles and one wizard. Black's audacious escape from Azkaban in the end of July has led to the widest manhunt ever conducted by the Ministry of Magic. None of us has ever questioned that he deserves to be recaptured and handed back to the Dementors. _

_BUT DOES HE? _

_Startling new evidence has recently come to light that Sirius Black may not have committed the crimes for which he was sent to Azkaban. Apart from the fact that he was never given a trial, a wizarding Naturalist, Lawrence Northwode, affirms that the whole tragedy may have an accident._

"_What people don't realize is that Sirius Black may have accidentally gotten in the middle of something bigger," says Mr. Northwode. "I have received notice that by 1981 in a building at the street where the alleged murder occurred there was a group of wizards who were suspected to run a large smuggling operation and that some of these men had very tight connections with the Ministry of magic. Among the smuggled goods, there were Erumpent's horns that, as you know, are extremely explosive and might have caused that tragic explosion instead of some unknown curse. I dare saying that, Black, being the only survivor, may have been the victim of a conspiracy by the Ministry itself. I hope that by exposing this situation to the public it will be investigated and, in the end, Mr. Black is given a full pardon."»_

"This is… interesting," Ginny mumbled.

Izzy nodded in agreement. That was not what she had been expecting to read… But at least someone was willing to believe her father was innocent, which was more than she could say about a lot of people.

"Dad received a lot of owls because of that article," Luna told her in a sad tone. "People seem to think the idea of Sirius Black being innocent is absurd. I don't understand why, though. Mr. Northwode made a very good point… But people think it is completely made up."

"I believe he's innocent," Izzy told her softly.

Luna sighed. "You're just saying that because my dad wrote it."

Ginny shook her head. "No, she's not. She does believe he is innocent. And so do I."

"Oh," Luna mumbled in surprise. "But why?"

Izzy smiled to herself. Being asked that question was rather ironic. "Maybe we'll tell you one of these days."

But, as she finished saying that, the three girls felt the train starting to slow down. Izzy got up and approached the window, looking out of it to see the furious rain falling outside. There wasn't a bit of sun and the landscape seemed to be covering with fog.

"We can't be there yet," Ginny stated, joining her. "We've just left half an hour ago."

After she said that, the train finally stopped with a jolt and all the lights in it were turned off.

"This is not normal…" Izzy breathed.

"Maybe it is the storm," Luna suggested as she got up too, surprising the two other girls with the fact that she hadn't found some sort of mythical creature to explain what was happening this time.

Suddenly, the air became very cold and they could see their own breath like it was a winter day. But the oddest of all, was the crackling sound made by the window as it seemed to freeze. Izzy placed her hand against it and could feel the ice crystals forming against her palm.

At the same time, she started to feel terribly. The cold seemed to have reached her insides and she started to feel weak. Every single bit of happiness inside her was vanishing one by one and all she could remember of her life was the bad memories: breaking her leg while she played Quidditch with Harry when she was seven, her mother crying when she thought nobody was listening because she missed her father, losing Ginny's friendship last year and being terrified when she had heard her best friend had been taken to the chamber…

Izzy could see Ginny shaking like mad on her seat – her face was pale white and her eyes were filled with fear as she mumbled 'no'. Luna didn't seem much better but she didn't move at all.

It was like they had been swallowed by a dark hole in the world. And, all of sudden, the worse memory came: her mother telling her about Azkaban. She realized what was going on immediately, even though that didn't make her feel any better. Dementors. That was exactly what her father had experienced every day of his life for the almost twelve years he had spent in Azkaban.

**A/N: Wow, this one was hard to write... What did you think of it? I know, I left you hanging but next chapter is almost done**** and I'll try to finish it soon. Well, I'm off to study now - maths exam tomorrow is a biiiiig pain. Wish me luck. And review!**


	10. Realizations

Mia had realized that something was wrong as soon as the train stopped and the lights were turned off. The furious rain outside only made her imagination reach even more horrible places. Her first instinct had been a motherly one: to go looking for Harry and Izzy. To keep them safe from whatever was going on.

So, while Remus had gone to speak to the train driver, Mia rushed to the back of it, where the kids were. In one of the carriages, she found Percy Weasley instructing the prefects to keep the students from blocking the corridor. He approached her when he saw her.

"Professor, do you know what is going on?" he asked. That was something that always annoyed Mia, even when they were not in school, Percy always caller her Professor or Ms. Davis.

She shook her head. "The new DADA teacher is trying to find out."

He nodded. "Alright, I'll try to keep things in order in the meantime."

"Yeah, you do that," she said, rushing into the next compartment.

But it seemed that, as farther as she went, the air got colder and colder. The sensation was familiar – Dementors. They had once been present in one of the battles she had fought for the Order and she could never forget the feeling. It came back in her worse nightmares.

Then, when she opened the access door to the next compartment, she saw the Dementor halfway inside a compartment doing Merlin-knew-what. Before she was taken over by the grief that the creature caused, Mia reached for her wand and called for her Patronus. The silvery form of a dog powered by the memories of her time with Sirius appeared immediately, causing the Dementor to back off. It took a good slice of her energy to drive it away but, seconds after the train's door opened violently, the creature exited it and the door closed back with a bang.

Mia immediately tucked her wand back into her pocket and ran to the compartment – she had a felling she wouldn't like what she was about to see. And she was right. Unconscious on the compartment floor she found her godson with Ron and Hermione kneeling on the floor next to him. "Oh, Merlin," she breathed, sinking to the floor too in order to check on him. He looked terrible, like he had been fighting back a nasty flu. But his cheeks were visibly colouring now that the creature was gone. "What happened to him?"

"It was that thing. I think it was a Dementor," Hermione said worriedly. "Harry went to check what was going on in the hallway but it showed up. Then, he just sort of went rigid and fainted. It didn't even touch him."

"Is he going to be alright?" Ron asked. "That thing didn't suck his soul, did it?"

She shook her head. "It needed to touch him in order to do that."

On the floor, Harry moaned something impossible to understand.

"Harry," Mia said. "Can you hear us? Open your eyes."

He opened one eye and looked up at his godmother. "Aunt Mia? What's going on?" he asked in a rough voice. "Where's that thing? Who… who screamed?"

"No one screamed," Ron told him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he murmured, sitting up on the floor. "Was that a Dementor?"

Mia nodded silently. "Come on, let's get you off the floor," she told him as she and Ron helped him get up and move to one of the compartment's seats. "Are you sure you feel fine?"

"I think so," he said. "I'm just a little light-headed. But I'm sure I heard screaming…"

"It may have been a memory, Harry," Mia told him. She wondered if it had been from the day Lily and James had been killed. He had been too young to remember but with Dementors around, you never knew. She was suddenly reminded of her daughter – why wasn't she in the compartment? "Where's Izzy?"

"She stayed with Ginny and Luna Lovegood," Hermione said. "They're in the compartment next door."

"Go check on her," Harry told his godmother. "I'm fine."

Mia shook her head. "No, you're not," she replied, turning to Hermione and Ron. "Make sure he doesn't get up while I go check on Izzy."

"We will," Hermione promised before she left the compartment.

Even before Mia could reach her daughter's compartment, Ginny exited it, seeming incredibly worried. "There's something wrong with Izzy," the redhead told her as soon as she saw her.

Hearing that, Mia hurried into the compartment and she found Izzy on one of the seats with her arms around her knees. She had tears running down her face, something highly unlike for her. Izzy rarely cried, especially if anyone was seeing it. She always tried to seem stronger than she actually was.

Luna was sitting silently by her side. Her face was a mixture of worry because of Izzy's state and paleness due to her own Dementor experience.

Mia coughed. "Ginny, why don't you and Luna go sit with your brother, Harry and Hermione while I talk to Izzy?"

"Will she be okay?" Ginny asked her.

"I hope so," Mia murmured before the two other girls quickly left the compartment, leaving mother and daughter alone. Mia approached her daughter and sat by her side. She didn't say anything for a while, hoping Izzy would be the first one to talk and, after a minute or so, Izzy sighed and laid her head on her mother's lap. Mia caressed her hair softly like she used to do whenever Izzy got sick or couldn't sleep.

"It was horrible, Mummy," Izzy whispered. Her tone was so vulnerable that it scared Mia. "It became so cold suddenly. And it started to feel really odd – I… I felt like I'd never be cheerful again… It was worse than you said it was."

She was talking about the Dementor. Being in the compartment right next to Harry's had made her feel the whole thing. _I wasn't able to protect them,_ Mia thought. Now, she needed to pick the pieces and make them better. "They… they don't get as close in Azkaban as they did today," Mia lied, stroking her hair softly. Hopefully, Izzy would never have to know the truth… "It is always a lot worse when you feel them for the first time."

"But it is still awful," Izzy said in a strangled whisper as she sat up and looked her mother in the eyes. "All I could remember while that thing was here was terrible. Daddy had to feel this for so long… It's not fair! He didn't do anything! I want him here. He needs us. He needs someone to comfort him like you're comforting me."

"Oh, sweetie," Mia whispered, putting her into a soothing hug. She felt exactly the same about him. Sometimes it was so hard thinking of him alone on the run that it was painful. But she didn't want Izzy to feel that way too. So, she did all she could right now – she held Izzy until she felt better.

---

Seconds after the train's arrival to Hogsmeade's train station, Mia had another nasty surprise. Several yards away, near the school's gates, there were more Dementors. It took her a short talk with Hagrid in order to find out who was responsible for their presence around the students.

"Dumbledore told me tha' the Minister ordered 'em placed here himself," the gamekeeper had informed her. "Said it was to protect the school from Black."

Fudge. Again. It seemed like it wasn't bad enough that Sirius was on the run. Now, the bloody minister seemed to be on a mission to infuriate her. So, she had rushed to the school and had a short conversation with Dumbledore before the feast started only to have him saying that his hands were tied in what came to that matter: as much as he didn't want them there, he couldn't go against the Minister of Magic.

Remus and the rest of the staff, except McGonagall, who was in charge of escorting the first years to their sorting, arrived not long after that so the feast could begin. And, soon, the Great Hall was full of students.

"Welcome!" Dumbledore right after the sorting. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast… As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business."

That statement caused the Great Hall to be filled with whispers as the students commented it with their friends.

The headmaster cleared his throat before continuing. "They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds, and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises… or even Invisibility Cloaks," he added. "It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the Dementors."

Mia huffed. _Like that would keep the Dementors from coming in… _As much as Dumbledore assured her they had no authorization to enter the school, Mia was completely sure that it was the last thing they would care about. Nobody would be safe at that school with those things floating around.

---

That morning had been a close call. Too close. If he hadn't morphed to his dog form that quickly, Merlin knew he would be soulless by that time.

He shouldn't have gone to Wales in the first place but his instinct had been stronger than his brain. As much as Sirius doubted Mia would be at her old place, he had needed to check. So, he had sneaked into the old Davis house without much fuss – it was furnished and clean, though a few furniture he remembered from the time Mia's parents owned the place was missing. At first, he almost believed that someone lived there. But then, he started to notice things – it was too clean, too tidy. Nobody could actually live there and not make the smallest mess: a magazine here, some keys there… No, that place was not inhabited. And there was no smell of Mia in there.

Then, he had had the idea of checking in Lulu's apartment. But she clearly didn't live there either, unless she had suddenly become a scrawny teenager boy who was clearly fresh out of school. Nevertheless, doing it in his human form – even if it was in the middle of the night – hadn't been his best idea as someone had seen him and called the aurors.

He knew he needed to give up looking. At least for now. The leads on him were still fresh and there was just no sign of Mia anywhere. Plus, it was September already. That meant the school year had started… and that Wormtail was in Hogwarts with the Weasley boy.

Promising himself that he would start looking for Mia after he was done with the rat, he headed north, to Scotland. To Hogwarts.

And he had no idea what he would find there.

---

"_Keep that thing you call a cat away from Scabbers!"_ Izzy heard Ron yelling at Hermione before Ginny closed their dorm's door behind her. None of their three other roommates was there yet, to their relief. It was not that they hated them; it was just that they tended to be sort of annoying.

"Will they ever stop fighting?" Izzy murmured as she opened her trunk and started unpacking her things.

Ginny shrugged. "You know how they are," she said simply. "Are you alright, Izzy?"

"Sure," she mumbled while removing a few shirts from the truck. "Just great."

"Are you kidding me?" her friend replied. "At least try to sound convincing when you lie to me. I know this has something to do with the Dementor. I saw the way you looked after it came. Was it about what you saw?"

Izzy sighed, not turning to her. "I just don't want to talk about it."

_Guess what? That's not an option, _Ginny thought. "I saw the Chamber again. The whole thing repeating itself. Except this time I actually saw Harry battling the Basilisk even though I was unconscious at the time. I saw him getting bitten and almost dying. It was really weird…"

"Ginny…"

"I didn't talk last year," she continued. "I didn't say a word about the diary and it ruined out friendship, got four students, a cat and a ghost petrified and Harry and I killed. You saw how wrong things ended up just because I kept my mouth shut. I'm not going to let you do the same. So, start talking or I'll hex you until you do. Bill taught me a nasty one this summer, you know. Bat bogeys. Doesn't sound pretty."

Izzy groaned. Ginny was right. And she was definitely not letting her off the hook, so she had no other solution but talking. "It wasn't about what I saw. It was more about what I realized my dad felt for all that time. It just… I would have gone mad if I had to feel that for so long. What if he's completely changed or gone mad? What if I never get to meet my dad as the person tells me about? Because I really want to meet that person."

The redhead sat on her own bed silently for a while. "Didn't you mum say Fudge had mentioned he looked sane?"

"She might have said that just so I wouldn't freak out," Izzy pointed out. "I know she lied to me and Harry sometimes to protect us. I don't blame her but she does."

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "She wouldn't lie about _that. _It would be worse having you expecting a sane father and getting a loony one instead than just expecting a loony one at the first place," she said. "Plus, how could have he escaped from Azkaban and not get caught so far if he wasn't sane?"

_Good question,_ Izzy thought. She did have a point, Izzy recognized. If her father was insane, he most definitely wouldn't have been the first person to escape from an 'inescapable' prison. "That makes sense. Oh, thank Merlin," she said in relief.

Her friend smiled. "Thank _me,_" she corrected her. "Now, we'd better finish this conversation before the other girls arrive. We wouldn't want them yelling that there's a murderer's daughter in their dorm, would we?"

Izzy had to hold back a laugh. That made her sound like the classic 'monster under the bed'. "Shut up, Ginny."

**A/N: Three exams down, three more to go. And, worst of all, I am surrently writing next chapter instead of ready my history books for the exam tomorrow. I must have some sort of failing wish... Anyway, I hope you liked this one. I think you'll like a certain moment i've just finished for next chapter. Try to guess what it is... Well, review! I need a positive spirit for tomorrow. **

**P.S: For the person who asked me if because Mia and Molly are related Harry and Ginny won't have a thing, keep in mind that Mia is adopted, thus not actually related to Molly, and that Harry is also not related to Mia. Meaning: There is no reason to fear that Harry and Ginny won't get together in this fic. Plus, their pairing is great, why would I change it?**


	11. Invasion

Weeks passed rather quickly since the beginning of the school year in Hogwarts and, soon, Halloween would be arriving.

In the meantime, a lot had happened, starting with Trelawney's prediction of Harry's death and ending with Lucius Malfoy getting Hagrid in trouble because his son had insulted one of his Hippogriffs during a Care for Magical Creatures class and ended up with a broken arm.

As the news that Sirius Black had been seen increased, so did the whispers all around the school: most of the people seemed to fear he would come into the school and do a massacre; Mia, Izzy and Harry, on the other hand, feared he would come into the school and get caught by the Dementors. Either way, everyone wanted him as far away from Hogwarts as it was possible.

But he didn't stay away at all – in fact he entered the castle in Halloween night and, apparently, ripped the Fat Lady's portrait because she wouldn't let him into the Gryffindor common room.

"_Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black,"_ Peeves, the poltergeist, had told Dumbledore in front of the mob of Gryffindors that were concentrated around the Fat Lady's portrait.

"We need to search the castle!" Flitwick said as he looked up at the headmaster. "For the student's safety."

Dumbledore nodded. "You're right, Filius," he said, tuning to Percy. "Mr. Weasley, why don't you take all your fellow Gryffindors to the Great Hall?"

Percy nodded immediately and started shouting at the other Gryffindors to follow him down to the Great Hall. Izzy, however, managed to sneak closer to Mia, who was standing a couple of yards away staring at the portrait by McGonagall's side.

"Mum, Daddy couldn't have done this!" Izzy whispered to her mother. "Tell me he didn't do this!"

Mia saw herself unable to say anything to Izzy. She had just… frozen. Ripping the Fat Lady's portrait… that just didn't seem like Sirius at all. She couldn't help trying to imagine what had caused him to do such a thing. Why did he want to go into the Gryffindor Common room?

McGonagall coughed by her side. "Miss Davis," she whispered to Izzy, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'm afraid people do desperate things when they are… well… desperate. Your father did have a terrible lack of patience, I'm afraid. But you shouldn't judge him by his actions of today." Then, the old professor looked at the group of Gryffindors leaving and called for Fred and George, who were near the end of it. "Please take Miss Davis to the Great Hall and keep an eye on her. She's feeling a bit distraught right now. I'm sure you understand."

They nodded in return. "Come on, Iz," one of them said as they walked her back into the group of Gryffindors.

In the moment the students disappeared from her view, McGonagall elbowed Mia. "Get yourself together, Mia. Like I said, people do desperate things."

She sighed. "I don't understand. Why would he want to go into the common room, Minerva? What was he looking for?"

Before McGonagall could answer, Dumbledore called for them and all the teachers surrounded the headmaster before he spoke.

"I trust the heads, except for Minerva, will take the students from their respective houses to the Great Hall and stay there watching them. If the other teachers won't mind, they'll join me in the search for Sirius Black."

Mia shivered. What if they actually found him? Dumbledore couldn't be really sending more than a dozen of teachers after Sirius knowing they could catch him, could he? On the other hand, he had to keep the appearances. But he wouldn't risk Sirius's life for that. Unless he knew something she didn't… _Of course he does, he is Dumbledore, after all_, she thought.

As the other teachers started to disperse, Mia approached the Headmaster. "Professor, you… you know how he's escaped. You know how he's entered Hogwarts, don't you?" Mia realized.

"I have a theory, Amelia. One that seems to be the only way for someone to escape Azkaban without any exterior help," he informed her. "I assume you are aware that Mr. Black is an Animagus."

Mia nodded seconds before realizing where he was getting. "You think he used his Animagus form to escape," she said in a very low tone.

The headmaster gave her a smile. "Dementors cannot feel non-human emotions and that transformation would certainly allow him to escape the aurors so quickly every time he is seen," Dumbledore told her. "In his animagus form, he may be already out of the school grounds by now."

She sighed in relief. He was right. Sirius was an Animagus. How hadn't she remembered it earlier?! That was the perfect cover for him. Nobody would suspect of a dog to be, in fact, Sirius Black.

"I suggest you start looking for now, Amelia," the headmaster told her. "To keep the appearances at least. Professor Snape seemed quite… suspicious of you and Remus Lupin. No doubt he thinks you are helping Mr. Black."

"He's right at some point," she informed Dumbledore. "I would help him if I could."

---

The Great Hall was only dimly lit when the twins walked into the Great Hall with Izzy. Only the Gryffindors were there, so far – the other houses were probably still on their way.

"Look, there's Ginny," one of the twins told her, pointing at his sister's mass of red hair a few yards away.

"_Hey, Gin-Gin!"_ the other yelled, causing Ginny to turn to them. _"We've got Izzy here!"_

The other redhead started walking in their direction, her face covered with relief. "Where have you been?! One minute you were by my side, the other you were gone!"

"I stayed behind to talk to my mum," Izzy replied simply. "Sorry I didn't say anything."

Ginny nodded. "Well, next time make sure you give me some warning. Come on; let's find the others."

While Fred and George went to join their own friends, Izzy followed her though the mob of panicking Gryffindors closer to the table house table, where Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting. The two girls sat by their side and Izzy quickly filled them in what McGonagall had told her.

"She is right," Hermione stated. "People don't think straight when they are desperate. But why would he want to go into the common room? _That_ doesn't make any sense."

"Hermione, shh," Ron warned her. "Malfoy is coming here."

Apparently, while they had been talking, the other houses had started to arrive to the Great Hall and Malfoy was coming in their direction with Crabbe and Goyle by his side.

"Well, if it isn't Potter, Weasley and Granger," he said venomously before turning to Ginny and Izzy. "Oh, Weaslette and Davis. Even better."

"Piss off, Malfoy!" Harry told him.

"No need to be rude, Potter," the blond boy replied. "I just needed to talk to your _sister_... See, my father has told me a few thing about Professor Davis. Something about her dating Black until not long before little _Davis _here came around…"

Izzy froze immediately. He _knew_. Malfoy knew about her father.

He gave her a mocking look. "Tell me, Davis (or should I say Black?), has Daddy murdered many people since he escaped?!"

She used all her strength to keep herself calm. "I have no idea what you're talking about. My _father _has never murdered anyone that I know of."

"Protective, isn't she?" Malfoy asked Goyle.

Harry got up and glared at Malfoy. "Leave her alone."

He laughed in return. "I'm surprised you bear talking to – much less protecting – the daughter of the man who sold your parents to You-Know-Who!"

Harry was about to pull out his wand out when, suddenly, Malfoy's face started to cover itself with several spots. In fact, by the way he had started to scratch himself, Harry assumed it wasn't just his face that was spotty…

"Oh, poor Malfoy is itchy," he heard one of the twin's familiar voice saying. Fred and George's faces appeared behind the Slytherins with smiles on their faces.

"Doesn't he look great in red?" Fred asked his brother with a laugh.

George shook his head. "I think green suits him better."

_"What did you do?!"_ Malfoy yelled.

"Calm down," Fred told him. "It's just a few spots. Nothing a teenager shouldn't be used to."

George nodded. "But keep in mind that if you spread any rumour about Izzy, being itchy will be the least of your worries."

"Got it, Malfoy?" Fred asked.

Malfoy nodded repeatedly as he kept scratching himself. "Yes! Do something!"

"Hum, we didn't hear the magic word," Fred said.

"Please, do something!"

They smiled. "Well, now that you asked so politely… It will wear out in an hour. I wouldn't try to remove it with magic, though… it tends to get worse," Fred stated.

"And, remember, we'll keep our ears open to the school gossip," George added, before waving him goodbye as the Slytherin made his exit.

"I told you we'd find a good opportunity to test that new spell, George," Fred told his brother with a grin.

"Good indeed," George agreed matching his grin before turning to Izzy. "You okay?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, thanks for sending him away," she said simply. Surprisingly, that hadn't been as difficult as she had expected it to be. Truth was easier to deal with than a lie.

"No need to thank us," Fred stated in a good mood.

George nodded in agreement. "A git's pain is our entertainment."

"You think he will spread it around the school?" Harry asked the twins.

"Nah," George told him. "We're known to keep our promises. Malfoy is too much of a coward. He won't take the chances of getting in our bad side and ending up with his bits covered in boils next time – the kind that takes weeks to disappear."

"Ouch," Ron said. "Remind me to never mess with the two of you."

"Aw, Ronnie, you should already know that by now," George stated.

Ginny chuckled. "What spell did you use on him? It was brilliant!"

"Just a little something that we made up," Fred replied. "We call it 'the git's lesson'."

"Fitting name," Izzy mumbled, looking down. "You know what? I wouldn't care. If it spread, I mean. I'm just sick of lying."

"You'd change your mind when you started noticing everyone speaking of you in the Hallways," Harry told his godsister. "Being the centre of the school's gossip is not the best thing in the universe."

"And your mother could have gotten in trouble because of it too, Izzy," Hermione added. "If the parents knew she had dated… well, a fugitive, they might insist that she was sacked."

Izzy knew that – that was probably the only reason why she had agreed to remain quiet. She needed her mother close at that moment. "Keeping secrets sucks," she said.

---

Once again, he hadn't acted so brightly that day. Going into the school just like that, slashing the portrait… he had risked so much. But when that orange cat had told him that the bloody rat was in the same dorm as his godson, he couldn't just help himself.

He knew he should be out of the school grounds by now. It was the intelligent thing to do. But he couldn't help willing himself to stay a little longer just outside the castle. He felt attracted to the castle, though he couldn't tell why. He could stay just a few more minutes there – he was in his dog form, after all, so nobody would recognize him.

He heard the castle's doors opening and Hagrid's unmistakable form exiting it – he was holding a lamp in one hand and talking to someone behind him that Sirius couldn't see or hear. He felt curious and decided that it wouldn't hurt approaching them a little more.

He hid behind a bunch of bushes just a couple of yards away from Hagrid and stayed there listening.

"… _and I jus' need to get Fang,"_ Hagrid was telling the person behind him. _"Will yeh be alright by yerself here waitin' or do yeh want to come too?"_

Then, he heard the very familiar voice that made him stop breathing for a second. _"I'll be alright by myself, Hagrid, thank you."_

He just couldn't believe it. It was Mia… He saw her after the gigantic caretaker started to walk away in his hut's direction. The light coming from the tip of her wand illuminated her form as she stood waiting for Hagrid to come back. She looked different… even more beautiful than he had last seen her, if that was possible. Her dark brown hair was longer, contrasting with her pale skin, and her body looked curvier. Maybe he only felt that because he hadn't seen her for so long, but all he saw was utterly stunning perfection.

_Merlin, what is she doing here? _He thought as he watched her. Hogwarts was about the last place where he had expected to find her. He selfishly hoped she hadn't moved on. His world without her was nothing. As he distractedly moved closer he stepped on a twig that lay on the floor, making a sound that caught her attention.

She looked at the bushes where he was hiding and took a step in their direction. Sirius knew she would recognize him in his dog form and hoped she didn't believe he was actually guilty. _"S…Sirius?"_ she whispered, still several yards away from him and clearly unable to see him. She knew he was there. He could see it in her eyes.

Suddenly, the castle's doors opened again and someone else came out. Sirius saw Mia immediately freeze and turn to see who it was, trying to pretend she hadn't seen anything. Once again, he felt surprised but, this time, in a negative way. The person who had just exited the castle was none other than Snivellus.

"_Ah, haven't started the search yet, have you Davis?" _he said when he saw Mia in his usual unpleasant voice. _"Expecting to give Black a head start?"_

"_I'm waiting for Hagrid to come back with his dog, actually," _Mia replied in a natural tone. _"But if Sirius is getting a head start from this, I can't say I'm disappointed."_

Sirius felt himself smiling in the inside as he heard her say that – she was sticking by his side. _Thank, Merlin. _

"_I've be__en telling Albus that you and that werewolf should not be trusted to teach in this school with Black at large,"_ Snape spat. _"I knew you'd be too tempted to help him."_

If it wasn't for the risk of being caught, Sirius would have bitten Snivellus in that very moment. That bloody arsehole was actually messing with his woman! _I'd probably die poisoned with snake venom, anyway_, he thought. Then, he actually registered Snape's words: '_You and that were wolf should not be trusted to teach in this school'. _Moony was there two. And he and Mia were teachers. _Merlin, this is a bloody night full of surprises, _he thought.

He heard Mia sigh. _"What are you doing here, Severus? Shouldn't you be inside watching the students?"_

"_I thought I was more needed out here looking for Black. In case you 'accidentally' missed him,"_ he let her know. _"I am curious. You're willing to let that murderer near your godson and potentially kill him just because of your… history?"_

"_Sirius would never harm Harry!"_ Mia told him angrily.

"_And how can you be sure of that?"_ Snape countered.

"_I am sure because I know Sirius,"_ she stated. _"And why, all of a sudden, do you care about his well-being? You don't seem to have a problem with treating him like crap even though he is Lily's son. Remember her? The only real friend you've ever had? I suggest you stop throwing accusations to the air, Severus, because I also have a bunch in my sleeve."_

Sirius watched proudly from his spot as Snape didn't reply this time and his face seemed to completely turn to stone after Mia's mention of Lily. He just stood there until Hagrid arrived.

As much as he wanted to follow them and keep watching Mia, he knew he had to go back to the cave where he was hiding. That night had been completely worth the risk. Now, he knew she believed in him and that was the best feeling he had had since his arrest years before.

But he also knew something else. Mia was inside that castle along with his godson and, unknowingly, with Wormtail. Now, more than ever, he knew he needed to finish him off. But, next time, he needed to plan it better.

**A/N: Just two more exams and I'm done! So, here is the 'sight' - I wrote it and rewrote it loads of times. I wanted the first (though very conditioned) interaction between Sirius and Mia to be perfect. I hope it worked... Review!**


	12. Saviour

**February 1994**

As Mia exited the Quidditch Pitch after the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw game, she couldn't help feeling like she was being watched. In fact, she had felt like that several times for the past few months, more specifically since Sirius had ripped the Fat Lady's portrait in the past Halloween. She believed it had really been him outside when she was waiting for Hagrid in that night.

And now, he was probably doing that again – risking himself just to see her. She cursed his recklessness for a moment before Izzy, Ginny, Ron and Hermione exited the Quidditch Pitch after her.

"… Malfoy seriously thought he, Crabbe, Goyle and Flint would be able to pass for Dementors?" Ginny was saying.

Izzy chuckled. "It was kind of funny seeing McGonagall dragging them out of the field. They almost fainted when that silvery thing Harry casted hit them."

For a moment, Mia let herself forget she was being watched and smiled to herself when she heard Izzy mentioning the 'silvery thing'. After Harry's first game, where the Dementors showed up and cause him to fall of his Nimbus 2000 (which had ended up as the Whomping Willow's chew toy and broken beyond repair) Mia had convinced him to have anti-Dementor Lessons with Remus. Apparently, those lessons had been successful as, during the game, Harry had managed to produce a Patronus to fight what he had thought to be Dementors, even though it was still a little far from corporeal. _We can't expect much more from a third-year student, _she thought.

"Have fun at the party in the common room," Mia told her daughter and her friends.

"How do you know there's a party?" Izzy inquired her mother with an eyebrow raised.

Mia chuckled. "There is _always _a party. Congratulate Harry for the game for me, alright? I need to go check a few essays."

"Okay, bye," Izzy said. "Oh, and if one of those essays is mine, make sure you give me a high mark."

"You don't need nepotism to get high marks in History of Magic, Izzy," Mia said with a smile as she walked away, feeling the watcher's gaze on her. She wondered if, in case it was really Sirius, he had noticed Izzy, if he knew who she was… She wanted to be the one to tell him about their daughter but there was just no way to do it right now without risking his safety. That was just one of the things she hated about him being a wanted man, just a face to the ministry who needed to be punished for something he would have never done in a million years.

Despite it being incredibly reckless and dangerous, which by itself screamed 'Sirius', and keeping her in a constant worry, Mia liked to believe it was him watching her. Because that would be the closest they had been in years. That meant that neither Azkaban nor the Dementors had ruined his ability to love her and that she still had a chance to get him back.

_Don't hope too much because then the disappointment will be more painful, _a part of her herself said. But she had to believe. That was what kept her in one piece.

Mia sighed as she walked though the castle's doors. She knew he couldn't see her when she was inside it. And she felt at loss because of that.

---

Izzy wasn't sure how late it was, the only thing she knew was that her internal clock should have told her to go to bed hours ago. In normal circumstances, she should have been yawning by then and begging for any sort of horizontal surface to sleep in. Nevertheless, sleep didn't seem to want anything to do with her that day.

The loud voices still cheered for Gryffindor's victory all around her and she could hear in the background Fred and George singing a made up song in Harry's honour along with Lee Jordan.

"… _Then he flew through the pitch_

_And he did beat the witch,_

_He's the boy who caught the snitch."_

Izzy chuckled and she saw her godbrother sitting between Ron and Hermione trying to hide his face behind a magazine as the three firth-years kept singing the ridiculous song. He was still wearing his Quidditch uniform and had his Firebolt, Mia's Christmas present to replace his wrecked Nimbus 2000, by his side, even though the game had ended hours before.

"I wonder how they came up with the song lyrics," Ginny said, sitting by Izzy's side.

Izzy shrugged. "They probably had it ready for months and were waiting for a good opportunity to sing it."

The redhead chuckled. "Yeah, that does sound like Fred and George."

In the opposite side of the common room, Professor McGonagall came through the portrait hole wearing a tartan dressing gown and a hair net, which, strangely enough, made her look even more strict than usual.

"Alright, I think this is enough celebration," she announced. "It's one in the morning. Everyone to bed!"

"Aw, can't we stay a little longer?" Lee Jordan asked. "We still have a few more inches of parchment to sing."

"You can sing it at breakfast tomorrow, Jordan," McGonagall told him before turning to Percy. "Make sure everyone goes to bed, Mr. Weasley."

Then, she turned around and left the common room, leaving a very proud of himself Percy in charge. "Alright, you heard Professor McGonagall. Off to bed!"

"_Oh man,"_ someone said.

"_You suck, Weasley!"_ Other person shouted in the middle of the crowd, to the twins' amusement.

"We make the words of whoever said that ours," Izzy heard Fred tell Percy as he and George passed in front of him. "You do suck, Weasley."

"Don't make me write to Mum," he threatened in reply.

Mostly annoyed, all the Gryffindors eventually retreated to their respective dorms, to Percy's success.

It took Izzy two hours tossing and turning in bed to realize that it was one of those nights. Sometimes, not very often, she had nights when she just couldn't fall asleep for some unexplainable reason. It was something Izzy had learned to deal with – a few hours of reading or watching muggle TV would eventually tire her enough to black out. As she didn't have a TV nearby, she chose to go down to the common room and find something to read.

She climbed out of bed carefully enough not to make any noise that might wake any of her roommates and made her way to the dorm's door. Izzy walked down the spiral stairway and reached the common room. The house elves had clearly gotten to it already: when she had gone up to her dorm, the whole room was a mess with confetti spread all over and butterbeer bottles lying on every surface; now, it looked as if nobody had ever stepped foot in it.

Izzy reached for a pile of magazines over a table and grabbed the one on top: some monthly publication about the state of magical economics – the more boring, the sooner she would start yawning. She wondered for a moment who in Hogwarts beside a professor would be interested in such a thing.

It was when she was reading a very thorough essay on Gringotts' investment plans that she heard the screaming coming from the boy's stairway. "Someone's just had one hell of a nightmare," she murmured to herself.

But it wasn't long before she realized she was wrong. Seconds later, there was a sound of footsteps coming down the stairs and she turned. Her eyes opened wide when she saw who it was. He looked quite different from the pictures that her mother had showed her but she was pretty sure that, right in front of her in the bottom of the boy's stairway, it was her father standing.

"What…," she whispered, getting up from the couch and letting the magazine fall from her lap. "What are you doing here?!"

He looked back at her in a panic and, before he could say anything, they heard footsteps hurrying down the stairs again.

"Quick, hide!" Izzy whispered to him. "Behind the curtains!"

"What?!" Sirius asked, looking at her like she had four eyes or some other freakish feature.

"Hide, do you want to get caught?!" she whispered furiously.

When the steps started to sound closer, he hurried to the curtains and hid behind them. Izzy looked at the stairs and saw Percy appearing.

"What happened?" she asked, faking a surprised tone. "I… I just saw Sirius Black passing and escaping through the portrait hole!"

"Isabelle," Percy said, hurrying away. "Stay here! I'll get professor McGonagall."

Izzy felt grateful it was Percy who had showed up – he, along with Bill and Charlie, was one of the Weasleys who were not aware of her real relation to Sirius Black: Ron, Ginny, Fred and George knew because they were hers and Harry's friends; Molly and Arthur were Mia's. The others weren't close enough to any of them to be let into the secret – in fact, she was sure Percy would never be included in it, while Bill and Charlie seemed nice enough to be let in, eventually. But, at the moment, she was incredibly grateful Percy didn't know because he would never have believed her if he did.

It took Percy about ten seconds to disappear and, in that moment, her father had come out of his hiding place. The look on his face was of pure surprise. "Why…"

Izzy shook her head. "No time for that. You've got to go! Run before someone catches you!"

It took him a few moments to react – Izzy could tell he felt like the whole situation was unreal. She would feel that way if she was being saved by some unknown kid.

"Thank you," he said before disappearing through the portrait hole.

She stood for what seemed hours, but it was actually less than a minute, staring at the portrait hole, only now taking in what had happened.

Izzy let herself sink in the sofa and prayed he wouldn't get caught. She had just seen her father for the first time in her life.

---

_It was so bloody unreal,_ Sirius thought as he sneaked out of the school grounds.

For the second time, he had entered the castle and, once again, his plans to make a bloody pulp out of Wormtail had been frustrated.

And, when he reached the common room coming from the third-year dorm and saw the girl sitting on the sofa – Sirius was sure she hadn't been there when the stupid portrait of the knight had let him in – he had thought that was the end of the line. He had frozen and waited for her to scream for help.

But she had told him to hide. A girl who he had never met had helped him escape. _Unreal, _he thought again. All he could think of while he hid behind the curtain and heard her giving false leads to the other boy was 'why?'. There was something about her that made him feel incredibly… curious. Somehow, he felt like he had seen her before – probably when he had been watching Mia.

In the end, he hadn't had the opportunity to ask her why she had helped him as she had hurried him off to save himself.

He knew he wouldn't be able to stop wondering now. Who was that girl, his saviour? And, more important, why had she helped him?

---

Everyone in Gryffindor was in the common room under McGonagall's supervision as the other professors searched the castle. Izzy was still half-trembling when her mother arrived there about half an hour after the incident.

"Do you mind if I steal talk to Izzy and Harry for a moment?" she asked the deputy headmistress.

McGonagall shook her head, pointing at the corner where they were with Ron, Hermione and Ginny. "Go ahead."

Mia sighed as she made her way through the mob that seemed to be surrounding Seamus Finnigan and quickly reached her kids.

"Aunt Mia," Harry said when he saw her. "Do you know if…"

She shook her head. "There's no sign of him so far." _Thank Merlin, _she added in her head. "Albus said he was in your dorm. What exactly happened?"

Harry shook his head. "I'm not sure. I just woke up with Seamus screaming and the dorm's room closing. The curtains around Ron's bed were completely ripped!"

"I managed to see Sirius for a second or two," Ron told her. "He looked… I don't know… confused. He was looking everywhere. Hermione reckons he was looking for something."

"What other reason could he have to risk this much by sneaking into your room?" Hermione asked.

Mia nodded in agreement. "Makes sense." And, whatever he was looking for, should be dangerous, considering he had came in with a knife…

"Then, Izzy saw him escaping from the common room," Harry told his godmother, to her surprise.

She turned to Izzy immediately to see her sitting silently. Her face looked normal but her eyes gave away that she was troubled. "Izzy, honey, are you alright?"

"Yeah," she said simply.

Knowing her daughter, Mia immediately felt like she wasn't telling her something. Maybe she just wanted to keep it to herself or she didn't want to say it in a room full of people.

"She couldn't sleep," Ginny said. "That's why she was in the common room."

"Alright," she said in a soothing voice. "Izzy why don't you come with me and stay in my room for tonight? Maybe you'll be able to sleep there. It's calmer than it is here."

Izzy nodded, getting up to join her.

"Do you need anything now, Harry?" she asked her godson.

He shook his head. "I'm fine," Harry told her.

Giving him a little nod, Mia walked back to McGonagall with Izzy by her side and, after letting the old professor know that she was taking her daughter with her, they exited the common room through the portrait hole and made their way to Mia's office in the first floor.

Inside, Mia locked the door behind her and took her daughter to her sleeping chambers, where they sat on her unmade bed – she had been sleeping when Remus had come to tell her about Sirius.

"I didn't see Daddy escaping from the common room," Izzy confessed in a low voice, looking her mother in the eyes. "I _helped _him escape. I didn't tell anyone else – not even Harry."

Mia looked at her daughter in surprise as soon as she heard that. "What do you mean 'helped'?"

"I saw him coming down the stairs but someone else was coming too," Izzy explained, "so I said to hide behind the curtains and told Percy he had already left. Then, while Percy was calling McGonagall, I told Daddy to run. He had to leave before the others started to come down to the common room."

"Oh, Izzy," Mia said, pulling her daughter into a hug and rubbing her back. It was hard to describe how proud she was right now – her twelve-year-old daughter had just saved Sirius. "Honey, that was very brave of you."

"He tried to ask me why I was helping him," Izzy whispered. "I wanted to tell him but I just couldn't! He would have been caught if I did!"

She nodded. "It's alright," Mia said, placing a kiss on top of Izzy's head. "He'll know. We'll be able to tell him one of these days. Did he… say anything else? Did he look alright?"

"He thanked me for helping him," Izzy told her. "And he looked at me like I was insane at first but I guess that was because he wasn't expecting to be saved by a kid. He looked really tired, though… and thin."

Mia was barely able to hide the pain that it made her feel. "He'll be fine," she told Izzy, even though she wasn't sure of it herself. "Why don't you just go to sleep for now, honey?

Izzy nodded. In fact, the exhaustion was already taking over her already as she lied down and let her mother put the covers over her and kiss her goodnight.

"Mum," she whispered. "Do you think Daddy will come back?"

Mia sighed – she hoped not. Even though he was an Animagus, he was risking way too much. "Maybe," she said.

The young girl closed her eyes, close to sleep. "I saw Daddy for the first time in my life today."

Her mother smiled. "No, you did more than that, Izzy. You saved him."

**A/N: I was going to post tomorrow but I felt like doing it today, instead. I can tell you that the reaunion is so damn close it almost burns (just hang in there a little longer). I hope you liked this chapter - I'll go back to writing, considering the inspiration is still pumping in my veins (nevermind the exam tomorrow... which, by the way, won't let me go see the HP6 movie that is premiering tomorrow! Damn college!). Review!**

**P.S: Sorry, posted the wrong version of the chapter earlier and had to delete it...**


	13. The Shrieking Shack

Months passed and summer was already peeking around the corner.

The sightings of Sirius had eventually become less and less frequent, though Mia still felt his stare from time to time when she was outside the castle. Sometimes, she wondered if she was just imagining the whole thing…

At the moment, Harry was exiting the Divination classroom after finishing his exam and couldn't help shivering from head to toes. Just a few seconds ago, Professor Trelawney, completely out of nowhere, had entered some sort of trance and made what seemed to be an actual prediction: the Dark Lord's servant would join him that night. He needed to tell that to someone. He needed to know what that meant. So, entering the first empty classroom he saw, Harry removed the Marauder's map of his robe's pocket to find Mia.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," Harry whispered, pointing his wand to it. A few moments later, the formerly blank piece of parchment was already filling with lines and dots moving all over the castle.

That particular item, which had been created by his father and his Marauder friends but lost sometime in their last year, had been given to him by Fred and George in the beginning of the school-year, making him promise not to share it with Izzy or Ginny yet.

"_One has to break a certain number of rules to be deserving of the map," _Fred had told him. "_Iz and Gin-Gin are still a little behind."_

Harry, using his wand to illuminate the map, searched the first floor trying to find his godmother in her office or classroom but she didn't seem to be in any of those places. He looked down at the first floor and saw Ron and Hermione's dots by the main staircase waiting for him but it was a third dot by their side that made Harry raise an eyebrow. 'Peter Pettigrew', it read. That was impossible. It had to be…

He completely forgot about the prophecy as he wondered how on earth a death person could be shown in the map. Getting no response, Harry started looking in the map for the one person that would know more about the map than everyone else in that school – Remus Lupin. His dot was easily found and Harry saw he was in his office, quickly closing the map and getting his things so he could run there.

It took him five minutes or so to reach the DADA classroom and his office. Harry knocked on the door hurriedly and opened it when the professor told him to come in.

"Harry, are you alright?" Remus asked as he looked up from a large pile of exams on his table. He looked terrible: pale, tired… Harry thought he should be the one asking him if he was alright.

"Yeah," Harry mumbled, approaching the desk with the blank parchment that hid the map and placing it on top of the exams. "Do you know what it this is, Moony?"

Looking down at it, Remus chuckled and used his wand to reveal the map the same way Harry had done minutes earlier. "How did you get this, Harry?"

"I'll tell you some other time," Harry said quickly. "I… I saw something impossible in the map, Moony. Someone who is dead. Could the map be wrong?"

Remus looked up at him, even more pale than he had been earlier. "The map is never wrong," he said. "Who did you see in the map?"

Harry took a deep breath before answering. "Peter Pettigrew. Wormtail. But that can't be. He was killed in the explosion Sirius was framed for, wasn't he? He's dead!"

The old Marauder didn't know what to say. It seemed impossible, the map was _never_ wrong – Sirius and James had made all sorts of spells to make sure of that. "Harry, do you mind if I keep the map for a while?" he asked.

Harry shook his head. "Tell me if you find something, okay?"

Remus nodded before Harry turned around. "Harry, wait. Be careful, alright?"

He chuckled. "I always am. But that doesn't seem to matter much – trouble gets me anyway."

---

"…he was supposed to have come here right after he finished his Divination exam," Hermione told Izzy and Ginny, who had just arrived from a potion's class down in the dungeons."

"Hermione, you know how Trelawney is," Ron said in a monotonous tone. "She's probably keeping him there so she can predict his death again." He turned to Izzy and Ginny. "Don't take Divination next year. The teacher is mental."

"We've already chosen Care for Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies," Izzy told him.

"Oh, Muggle Studies is fascinating," Hermione told them, her face brightening. "You'll love Professor Burbage. I never miss any of her classes."

Ginny raised an eyebrow at Hermione. "Wait, wasn't Muggle Studies at the same time as Divination? You've just dropped it a month ago. How could you have gone to _every _class and also go to Divination."

Hermione immediately tensed. "Oh, did I say I went to all of them?" she asked nervously. "Never mind. It _feels_ like I went to every class. You know, because my parents are muggles… Oh, look, there's Harry."

Izzy looked at the main staircase and saw him coming in their direction.

"Mate, where have you been?" Ron asked him.

"I had to go talk to Professor Lupin for a moment," he said hurriendly. "I'll tell you about it later. We need to leave before, you know, they do it."

"Leave? Where are you going?" Izzy asked him with an eyebrow raised.

"To Hagrid's hut," Harry told her. "Buckbeak is going to be executed today at eight."

"He lost the appealing?" Ginny asked in a sad voice, receiving a nod from Harry in return. "Bloody Malfoy!"

"Yeah," Hermione agreed. "We thought we might go there to say goodbye before it happens. Do you want to come too?"

Izzy raised an eyebrow. "I doubt we will all fit under the invisibility cloak," she said. "And Mum won't be happy if we all miss dinner."

"Oh, right," the older girl mumbled. "I didn't quite think of that."

"Well, tell Hagrid we're sorry, alright?" Ginny said.

Harry nodded. "We'll be back in a hour or so," he told them, before looking around to make sure nobody was watching as he removed the invisibility cloak from his bag, covering himself and his two friends.

---

**T****wo Hours Later**

It was unbelievable how, in a matter of hours, things changed. While they had left the castle at seven just to pay Hagrid a visit, now, at nine, Harry was watching Scabbers being dragged to the Whomping Willow by a large black dog and Ron chasing after them.

"Ron, _no_!" Hermione yelled as she saw him approaching the Whomping Willow too closely. _"Get back here!"_

"_Ron!_" Harry shouted too, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backward again. He just couldn't believe that Ron was going to get himself killed for a bloody rat!

"Harry… we've got to go for help …" Hermione gasped as Ron stopped a few yards ahead of them as he couldn't pass the tree, watching the dog sneaking though a gap in the tree and disappearing with Scabbers.

"Ron, what do you think you're doing?!" Harry asked him in disbelief. "And they say I'm the one with the death wish!"

"I'm saving my rat!" he said. "I'm not leaving without Scabbers."

"Let's call a teacher, then," Hermione told him. "To help!"

"No! That thing's big enough to eat him; we haven't got time…"

Hermione shook her head. "We're never going to get through without help…"

"If that dog can get in, then we can too," Ron panted, trying to find a way through the brutal, swishing branches, but he couldn't get an inch nearer to the tree roots without being in range of the tree's blows.

Suddenly, Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, darted forward. He slipped between the battering branches and placed his front paws upon a knot on the trunk. Abruptly, the tree stopped moving.

"Merlin, how did he do that?" Harry breathed.

But, before he could get an answer, Ron was already running to the gap and making his way through it. Harry and Hermione looked at each other and silently decided to follow him. They reached the gap and crawled forward, headfirst, sliding down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel.

"Ron?" Harry called.

"_I'm here_," they heard his voice coming from a distance.

Harry quickly helped Hermione get up and they covered the distance that separated them from Ron in seconds. The three walked together though the tunnel's distance – Harry had a vague idea it was leading them to Hogsmeade – he remembered seeing that passage signalled in the Marauder's map but Fred and George had said no one had ever gotten into it.

After several yards, the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Harry could see a bit of faint light through a small opening. He, Ron and Hermione edged forward with their wands raised to see what lay beyond. It was a room: paper was peeling from the walls and there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it and the windows were all boarded up.

"I think we're in the Shrieking Shack," Hermione told Harry and Ron.

They heard something moving upstairs and Harry nodded at the staircase at their right. Quietly as they could, they crept up the crumbling stairs. They made their way to the only door open in that floor and gasped when they saw who was inside.

"Sirius?" Harry managed to gasp.

---

Sirius gazed at the boy in surprise. He had no doubt of whom it was – that was his godson, Harry. He was James's spitting image but with Lily's bright green eyes. He had been half expecting a little more than a look of surprise from his godson when he saw a supposedly dangerous fugitive standing in front of him – fear maybe. _Unless Mia told him, _he figured. She was a teacher in Hogwarts and he was a student – it was only natural they talked from time to time.

"Sirius, what are you doing here in the Shrieking Shack?! This place is haunted!" Harry asked him in disbelief. "And where's the dog?"

"Harry… I think he may be the dog," the girl by his side told him in a low tone, before looking at him. "You're an Animagus, aren't you? That's how you managed to escape!"

"Yep," Sirius told her, surprised she had figured it out. "I'm an Animagus."

"Why did you take Scabbers, then?" the redhead asked, looking all over the room as if he was looking for something. "Where is he?"

"Scabbers?" Sirius inquired in confusion. "You mean the rat?"

The redhead nodded and Sirius nodded at a bedside table that was by the bed. "He's in the drawer. But, let's just say he's as much of an animal as I am."

"What? That's insane," he replied. "Scabbers had been in my family for…"

"…more than a decade?" Sirius finished. "Awfully long for a garden rat, don't you think?"

"Wait, you're saying he's an Animagus too?" Harry asked him, realizing what Sirius was hinting.

"No!" Ron said. "We would have known!"

The girl grabbed his arm and shook her head. "Professor McGonagall said that humans can't tell an Animagus apart from a real animal, Ron."

Sirius nodded. "Exactly. But animals can. You're probably wondering why that orange cat was always after the rat. He knew. He was trying to help me."

"Crookshanks knew?" the girl asked in surprise.

"Yes," Sirius told her. "He's incredibly smart for a cat, let me tell you. But, as I was saying, the rat is not actually a rat. I was not the only Animagus at Hogwarts in my year. There were two more. James Potter, who was a stag, and a friend of ours, Peter Pettigrew, who was a rat."

"Peter Pettigrew?" Harry inquired in disbelief. "But he…"

"…didn't die," Sirius finished for him. "The bloody bastard blew up a whole street full of muggles and faked his own death just so I wouldn't kill him for selling your parents to Voldemort."

He thought for a moment that Harry might fall down in shock but he just stood still, clutching his jaw."It… it was him? _He_ was the secret keeper?"

Sirius nodded. "I was supposed to be the one but it was too obvious. I thought Voldemort would never come to Peter but, apparently, Peter went to him. If only I had just shut up and accepted…"

"He was our friend, Padfoot," a familiar voice came out of the room. Sirius couldn't help chuckling when he saw who it was – Remus. Good old Remus Lupin back to the Shrieking Shack. "We trusted Wormtail with our lives."

"And the little bastard betrayed us," Sirius said, approaching the bedside table where he had locked Wormtail. He opened the drawer and grabbed the rat by the tail, showing him to Remus. "Will you do the honours, Moony? I don't have a wand with me."

"Of course," he replied.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Ron asked in a panic.

"Show you how your rat really looks like," Sirius said, holding the rat in position for Remus.

Then, a flash of blue-white light erupted from Remus's wand and, for a moment, when Sirius let go of the rat, it was frozen in midair, his small gray form twisting madly and then he fell and hit the floor. There was another blinding flash of light and then it slowly started to turn into a human form. Less than a minute later, Peter Pettigrew was lying on the floor looking around at them all, his breathing fast and shallow.

"Well, hello, Peter," Remus said pleasantly. "Long time, no see."

"S… Sirius… R… Remus..." the traitor said. "My friends… my old friends…"

Sirius was about to launch himself at him to beat him into a bloody pulp but Remus seized him, gave him a warning took and then turned again to Peter, his voice light and casual. "We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily and James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around in the drawer."

"Remus," Wormtail gasped, "you don't believe him, do you? He tried to kill me, Remus…."

The following fifteen minutes were practically only filled with Peter accusing Sirius of trying to kill him and, after everyone had let him knew they didn't believe a word, trying to find excuses to justify why he had joined the Death Eaters. That went on until Sirius had enough and turned to Remus. "What do you say, Moony, we avenge James now?"

Remus nodded. "Harry, Ron, Hermione, I think you may want to leave before we do this.

"No, you can't kill him!" Harry shouted breathlessly, taking one step closer to Sirius. "You can't!"

"Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Sirius told him, trying to hold his fury towards the rat. "This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole family."

"I know," Harry said. "But my father wouldn't want his best friends to become murderers just for him. And I reckon Aunt Mia wouldn't want that either. She's waited for you for as long as I remember and, if you kill him, she'll lose you forever."

Sirius face dropped as he heard that. From the moment he had seen Peter, Sirius had completely forgotten his promise to Mia. He had told her he would come back to her and he was about to ruin all of it by killing Wormtail. She deserved more than that…

"We can take him up to the Dementors and he'll go to Azkaban," Harry continued. "Please, Sirius. Don't put everything in the line for that traitor."

H sighed and turned to Remus, realizing his godson was right. "We'd better tie him up."

---

Sirius kicked Wormtail's tied form out of the Whomping Willow's gap and the tiny man fell to the floor with a bang.

"Just a few more minutes, Petey," Sirius told him in an all-too-sweet voice. Dragging Peter to the Dementors had, so far, revealed itself to be an awfully enjoyable activity. "We'll get the Dementors for you in no time."

Ron and Harry, who had followed Sirius out of the gap, saw Pettigrew wriggling on the floor in what seemed to be despair. "You know what this means?" Sirius asked abruptly turning to his godson. "Turning this little bastard in?"

"You're free," Harry told him with a smile as Hermione joined him.

"I am," he said with a nod. "You know that I am your godfather, right? Mia told you."

Harry nodded. "She pretty much told me all about you and my parents as she raised me."

Sirius was taken aback by surprise. "Wait, she raised you?" He had expected her to be a part of his life bur raising him… all by herself?

"Yeah," Harry confirmed. "And she was pretty good at it. We lived in Montreal for a long time but we came back when I got my Hogwarts letter. She teaches History of Magic in here. She's alright, Sirius."

He smiled to himselg. Mia always did have a knack for History of Magic. "What you said down there… that she was waiting for me… you weren't just saying that so I wouldn't kill the rat, were you?"

"Of course not," Harry told him immediatly.

Relief washed over Sirius as he heard that – deep down, he had been afraid Mia might have moved on after so much time. He wouldn't blame her for it – thirteen years were a very long time for someone to wait. But she had waited, which made him love her even more, if that was even possible.

He looked at the sky and breathed in the air of freedom. But then, he noticed something – up the sky, the moon was full. It was full moon and they were out with a werewolf. Sirius turned around abruptly. But it was too late. Behind them, Remus was already shaking, transforming.

"Oh, my…" Hermione gasped. "He's transforming!"

"Transforming?" Ron asked as he and Harry looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"He's a werewolf!" she yelled.

"Run," Sirius whispered. "Run. Now."

**A/N: I know, this one was quite similar to the books... But, well, I think you'll like next one, which is, why, once more, I'm asking you if you'd rather I updated sooner next chapter and maybe took a bit longer to give the one after or just do it the way I usually do. Up to you, I have it finished, anyway. Hope you enjoyed it - I'm off to see HP6 in half an hour. Review!**


	14. Flight

Next thing Harry knew, he was waking up in one of the Hospital Wing's soft beds. He wondered for a second if he had hit his head somewhere and the whole confrontation with Pettigrew had been an elaborate fantasy. Opening his eyes, he saw everything blurred over him.

"Harry, you're awake!" he heard Hermione's familiar voice saying and felt his bed moving like she had just sat on it. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," he said in husky voice. He put his glasses back on and her face immediately became clear. "What… what happened?"

"You don't remember?" she asked him. "The shrieking shack?"

_Oh, so I didn't imagine it,_ he thought. "The last thing I can recall is Moony… transforming. How did you know he was a werewolf?"

"I figured it out when Snape gave us that essay on werewolves while Professor Lupin was away," she said. "But after he transformed, Sirius turned into his Animagus form trying to calm him down. They had quite a struggle and you went after them when he managed to chase Professor Lupin away… to near the lake, I think. Ron and I ran to the castle and only noticed you weren't with us a couple of minutes later."

"Ron… where is he?"

"Knocked out on a bed," Hermione told him, pointing at a curtained bed. "The Dementors ended up reaching us and he hit his head on a rock when he fainted but Madam Pomfrey says he'll be fine. Oh and Pettigrew escaped in the middle of everything."

"Damn!" Harry cursed under his breath. After everything, the bloody traitor was gone. For a moment, he wished he had let Sirius kill him. "What about… Sirius?"

Hermione's face fell. "I heard Dumbledore talking to McGonagall when they thought I was asleep. He says Snape showed up and took us all inside the castle. He and Filch had Sirius locked him somewhere. They said… they said the Dementors would give him the kiss at any moment, Harry…"

"What?! No!" he said, climbing out of the bed in a quick move that made him dizzy for a moment.

"Harry…" Hermione started.

But he ignored her voice and walked in the Hospital Wing's door direction. Right outside, Dumbledore was talking to a very worried Izzy as Mia just looked at them, her face reflecting the despair she was holding inside.

"… you need to run there as fast as you can, Isabelle," Dumbledore told her, handing her an envelope. "You will know who you are supposed to give this envelope when you get there."

Izzy looked at Harry for a moment before speeding away to Merlin-knew-where.

"Albus, I don't understand," Mia said, her voice broken. "Why are you sending Izzy to run errands? Why… why aren't you doing anything to help Sirius?! You know he is innocent! You can't let them take his soul!"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Amelia, the plan is already in motion."

"It may be too late, now!" she shouted in reply. "He may have already been kissed!"

"We can witness he is innocent!" Harry said, making the two adults turn to him and Hermione. "We saw the whole thing in the Shrieking Shack! It was Pettigrew! He was the one who betrayed my parents. He blew up the street and faked his own death!"

Tears fell down Mia's face. "Peter? No… he was our friend." She just couldn't believe it. Peter? That had to be a joke.

"We saw it," Hermione told her. "It was him that Sirius was after all this time. When he entered the castle, the common room… it was Wormtail! He was hiding in his Animagus form as Ron's rat! We can testify under Veritaserum or show them everything in a pensieve."

"I'm afraid that arguing with Dementors may be a lost battle," Dumbledore stated sadly. "It is too late now. What we need, Miss Granger, is more time."

"But…" Hermione began. And then her eyes became very round. "_Oh!_"

"Now, pay attention," Dumbledore told them, speaking very slow and very clearly. "Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor. Thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. If all goes well, you will be able to save more than one innocent life tonight. But remember this, both of you: you must not be seen. Miss Granger, you know the law… you know what is at stake. You cannot be seen. And you need to make a stop at the top of the West Tower."

Mia didn't have a clue what was going on. She wanted to ask the headmaster but the wprds seemed to be stuck in her throat.

"I suggest you go back to the infirmary. I am going to lock you in. It is…" he consulted his watch, "five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."

She stared at Dumbledore as Harry and Hermione walked into the Hospital Wing and he closed the door behind them.

"What… what the hell was that all about?" she managed to ask, completely out of patience.

Dumbledore smiled at her and nodded at the end of the corridor. Mia turned to it and, to her surprise, saw Harry, Hermione and Izzy running in their direction. "But… but they just…"

"Time-turner, Amelia," Dumbledore said. "More time was all we needed."

A time-turner. _Of course_. Dumbledore had just sent Harry and Hermione back on time to get Sirius away from the castle in time.

The three teenagers finally reached her, panting like they had just finished a marathon. "We did it," Harry announced. "We saved Sirius."

The headmaster nodded and turned to Mia. "Now, Amelia, it's time for you to do your part of the job. Go home and wait for him."

---

**Twenty minutes before – Sirius **

Sirius woke up wishing he hadn't. The last thing he remembered was being surrounded by Dementors and Harry showing up. Now, here he was, in a slightly familiar office but that he couldn't remember who belonged to, aching like he had just wrestled a dragon. _A werewolf, actually, _he corrected himself. The pain in his torso caused by a particularly hard blow by Remus made it hard to move but, doing his best to ignore the pain, he got up from the sofa where he had been lying and tried the door, hoping it wasn't locked – it was.

_This is it,_ Sirius thought as he sat on a chair. He had been caught and it was only a matter of time before the Dementors came to give him the kiss. He was never going to see Mia again. In fact, he was never going to see anyone again because he was going to completely empty, soulless.

He wouldn't even be able to keep the memories… why wouldn't they just kill him? That would be a lot easier.

Suddenly, he heard a tapping on the window. He had to be imagining it – he was in the seventh bloody floor! The tapping came again and, this time, Sirius turned to see what it was. His jaw dropped when he saw his godson outside of the window. _How on Earth did he get there? _Sirius thought, getting up and hurrying to the window only to find out that it was locked too.

"Stand back!" Hermione, whom he had only noticed at that moment, called, pointing her wand at the window. "_Alohomora!"_

In the moment she said the words, Sirius heard the lock clicking and he finally managed to open the window. "How… _how_…?" he asked in shock before noticing the Hippogriff.

"Get on! There's not much time," said Harry "You've got to get out of here… the Dementors are coming."

Harry was right – that was his only way out. Sneaking out of the window was relatively hard due to his ribs but, after managing to do it successfully, Harry flew them on the hippogriff's back in the West Tower's direction. It wasn't long before Buckbeak landed with a bang on the tower's surface and the three climbed out of the creature's back

"Sirius, you'd better go quickly," Harry declared. "They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment, they'll find out you've gone."

"What happened to the other boy? Ron?" said Sirius urgently.

"He's fine," Hermione said. "He's out of it, but Madam Pomfrey says she'll be able to make him better. Quick, go!"

"_Wait!_" someone said, bursting through entrance from the castle. He wasn't able to recognize who it was at first but, after a few seconds, Sirius realized that it was the girl who had saved him in the common room a few months ago. "I need to tell him something first!"

"Izzy! We don't have time for _that_ now!" Harry told her in exasperation.

Izzy shook her head. "Not _that_!" she told Harry before approaching Sirius. She handed him an envelope and a small note. "Dumbledore asked me to give you this. The note says where you are supposed to go and only you can read it. He said he will send someone there to take Buckbeak. The envelope has the things you had with you when you were…" Izzy hesitated saying the word 'arrested' but he understood it was what she meant.

Sirius nodded softly as he accepted the items and put it in his pocket. He was surprised that she was helping him again – what reason could that girl have to do so? "Why are you helping me?" he asked softly.

Izzy gave him a smile that looked strangely familiar. "You'll know soon," she promised him. "Now, go!"

He took a deep breath before climbing up to the Hippogriff's back. "How can I ever thank…"

"_Go_!" the three shouted together.

Sirius gave them one last smile before wheeling Buckbeak around and facing the open sky. Then, the hippogriff took off so quickly that he almost lost his balance. It was only then that relief took over him – he was going to receive the Dementors' Kiss, after all…

He reached for his pocket and took out the folded note. Opening it, he read his destination in surprise.

_12 Grimmauld place__._

---

Mia's whole body shook as she looked out of Grimmauld Place's living room's window. She had been waiting for more than two hours for Sirius to arrive – Dumbledore had promised to send him there… What if he had been caught again? What if the Dementors had…? She shook her head, looking away from the window for a moment as she tried to clear her mind of these thoughts.

A sudden noise outside startled her and Mia looked out of the window again, thanking Merlin she had remembered to cast muggle-repelling spells all over the street. She saw a form moving in the middle of the darkness and, without thinking, she ran out of the room and down to the ground floor, speeding though the house's front door as fast as she could in order to reach the moving form.

Then she saw it – Sirius climbing out of Buckbeak's back to the floor. As she approached him, she saw the look of surprise on his face from seeing her– he hadn't been told she was the one waiting for him. They were merely a step away from each other and that was usually the part when she woke up whenever she dreamt of him being back… but not this time.

"Mia…," he murmured, looking her in the eyes.

She took a deep breath that came followed by the final step, which allowed her to wrap her arms tightly around him. To her surprise, he flinched and, all of sudden went limp in her arms and she had to lower herself to the floor in order not to let him fall.

"Sirius!" Mia called in panic, thinking the worse before she felt that he was still breathing_. Oh Merlin, what's wrong with him_? It was only then that she noticed how battered and exhausted he looked and remembered the fact that he had been wrestling a werewolf less than four hours before.

"Calm down," Mia told herself nervously. "You were a healer, so start thinking like one!" It took her a few seconds to realize what she needed to do first – taking him out of that street, for sure. "Kreacher!"

The old house-elf instantly appeared by her side with a 'pop'. "You called, Mistress?" Kreacher said in a rough voice before noticing Sirius's presence. "Master Sirius…" he mumbled, looking down at his unconscious form.

"Kreacher, I need you to apparate us inside the house now," she told him hurriedly. "Can you do that?"

He nodded. "Kreacher can but Mistress has to hold Master close or Kreacher can get master splinched."

"I will," Mia assured him. Kreacher touched Mia's arm and, moments later, she felt like she was being violently sucked into some sort of tube and when the feeling ended, she saw herself on her room's floor, holding Sirius close to her chest.

"Mistress needs help with Master Sirius?" Kreacher asked.

Mia shook her head 'no'. "Please, go get the hippogriff from outside and keep him in one of the unoccupied rooms until Dumbledore arrives with someone to take him away."

The house-elf nodded and disappeared from the room, allowing Mia to turn her attention back to Sirius. After removing his long jacket and throwing it to a chair, she grabbed her wand from her pocket and used it to levitate him to the adjoined bathroom – the first thing she needed to do was to wake him up to make sure he didn't slip into a coma or something.

He immediately reacted when he felt the water of the shower falling on top of him and soaking his clothes.

"Sirius," she whispered, caressing his face with her free hand. "Can you hear me?"

He mumbled her name before opening his eyes. "Water's cold," he said in a weak voice.

"I know," Mia told him softly. He seemed so… defenseless. Almost like a little kid… "But I need you to stay awake. Can you do it without the water?"

Sirius shook his head. "Too tired," he replied in a whisper.

"You have to stay awake a little longer, Sirius," she told him, lowering her hand from his face to his hand, grasping it as if trying to let him know she was really there. "Tell me where it hurts. Did you hit your head?"

He shook his head again. "Hurts everywhere… more my ribs, I think."

That would explain his reaction to her hug – she had held him too tight and the pain together with the exhaustion had probably been what had caused him to faint. She sighed and grasped his hand again. "Alright," she mumbled to herself. "Stay awake for me, Sirius. I'll fix you. I promise I will."

Sirius looked at her sleepily and nodded. "'Kay. Love you, Mia."

Mia smiled softly, half worried, half relieved. His declaration had just given her a glimpse of the Sirius she knew and loved. "I love you too."

---

She wasn't sure of how late it was when Dumbledore came to the house but it was certainly past three. By that time, Sirius was healed (or as healed as it was possible) and sleeping under the effect of dreamless potion.

"He is going to stay hidden here with me until we find that bloody rat," Mia told the old headmaster. "I won't have it any other way, Albus."

"Actually, Amelia, he won't need to hide," Dumbledore told her with a large smile. "Just a few minutes after he escaped, Cornelius arrived to the school and your godson and Miss Granger were kind enough to provide him with their memories of the confrontation between Sirius and Mr. Pettigrew. And, as two third-year students couldn't have possibly altered their own memories, Cornelius had no other choice but accept them as the truth."

Mia's face immediately brightened. "Wait, you mean…"

"I believe that by this moment Sirius Black has been conceded a full pardon and his former charges were placed against Peter Pettigrew," Dumbledore told her.

She had to sit down on the couch or she would surely fall to the floor. "He's… he's free?" she asked, looking up at Dumbledore with tears on her eyes.

He nodded with a smile. "I assume you want to be the one to tell him after he wakes up, Amelia."

"Oh, Merlin," she whispered to herself. "I… I don't know what to say. Thank you. Thank you so much for what you are doing for me and for Sirius."

Dumbledore shook his head. "Nonsense. I am not the one to praise. Your godson and Miss Granger did all the work in saving him."

_I do have to thank them too,_ Mia thought. "This is just so… unbelievable."

"I understand it may be, Amelia," Dumbledore stated. "I will contact you soon. But for now I suggest you take a few hours of rest, Amelia. It was a very long day."

Mia nodded. "I think I'll do just that, Professor," she agreed before walking the headmaster to the house's front door and, after he was gone, the clock in the ground floor's hallway stated that it was already four in the morning. Mia tiredly made her way up to the master bedroom and, entering it a few minutes later, she smiled. In the bed in front of her, Sirius was sleeping peacefully. He deserved a good night of sleep. Both of them did, in fact…

She sighed as she changed into her pyjamas and carefully slipped into the bed, lying right next to him. She rested her head against his shoulder and one of her hands reached for his before she closed her eyes. That was incredibly peaceful – she was still worried about his health but, for the first time in years, she was actually able to fall asleep next to him, which allowed the lump she had been feeling in her throat for all that time to disappear.

He was free and she had the man she loved back. Finally.

**A/N: And here is your reunion! There will be more, don't worry. Please, tell me what you thought of it - god knows I've written and rewritten it more times than I can count... Review!**


	15. Revelation

**Hogwarts**

In the following morning, Izzy couldn't stop tapping her finger on the table at breakfast as she ate. Her mother had promised her she would write in the morning with news from her father and, so far, the bloody owls didn't seem to want to come.

"Iz, I understand you're nervous and all but the tapping is getting sort of annoying," Ginny, who was sitting by her side, told her.

"Sorry," she said, sighing.

"So, hum, when are Harry, Ron and Hermione leaving the Hospital Wing?" The redhead asked, trying to change the subject.

Izzy shrugged. "Harry and Hermione today, maybe. Ron may have to stay there a little longer, I guess."

Ginny nodded. "Okay. And, by the way, the owls are here," she said, point at the mass of birds entering the Great Hall.

Looking up, Izzy searched for her mother's usual brown owl but didn't find it there. Instead, in front of her landed a tiny grey owl carrying a letter and an edition of the Daily prophet that were way too big for him.

"Aw, he's cute," Ginny said, poking the little bird. It hooted in return, causing Ginny to laugh.

Izzy reached for the letter, seeing it was really addressed to her in her mother's handwriting, and ripped it open, starting to read right away.

_Dear Izzy,_

_You can stop worrying about your father because he is alright. _

Izzy immediately sighed in relief – he was home and he was okay. _Thank Merlin, _she thought.

_He__'s still asleep and I doubt he will wake up anytime soon – he was exhausted when he arrived. _

_I hadn't time to tell him about you yet but I'll make sure I'll do that when he wakes up._

_By the way, I had Kreacher getting a new owl to send you this letter – I understand Ron lost his pet because of yesterday's events and I'd like him to keep this one._

_Mum_

"Mum says the owl is for Ron," Izzy told her best friend.

Ginny turned to her abruptly. "Really?"

She nodded. "Apparently, Kreacher was the one who picked it. He's great at cooking and all but picking owls doesn't seem to be his forte."

"Please, Ron had an Animagus for a pet for years. A tiny owl will certainly be an improvement," Ginny said, holding the little animal. "I shall name you… Pigwidgeon."

Izzy chuckled. "You realize the owl is for your brother, right?"

The redhead shrugged. "He'd probably name him after some loser from Chudley Cannons, anyway. Pigwidgeon is a cute name, isn't it?" she asked the little owl, which hooted in response. "See? He agrees."

Izzy laughed and looked at the letter again and noticed there was a P.S. '_You might want to look at the newspaper right now'._ She immediately reached for the newspaper her mother had sent and her face brightened as soon as she read the headline.

"Ginny!" she yelled, scaring Pigwidgeon, who zoomed his way to the table, where he hid behind a jug of milk. "Look," Izzy said, handing the newspaper to her best friend.

Ginny grabbed it and read the headline out loud. "_Sirius Black given full pardon: innocent behind bars for 12 years and real responsible still at large_." She looked at Izzy in amazement. "Your dad is free!"

"He's free!" Izzy repeated in excitement. She could barely believe it – it was better than ten Christmas and birthdays together in the same day. Her father was free from jail and she couldn't wait to go home to meet him. _Six days,_ she told herself. _I'll go home in six days_. But, for now, she had something to do. "I've got to do something. Wait here," she told Ginny before getting up and making her way to the staff table, more specifically, to the headmaster.

Dumbledore smiled when he saw her approaching and Izzy wondered if he knew what she was about to do even before she did. "I take it you've already received the good news, Isabelle," he said calmly. "I've seen your mother last night. She said your father would be back in shape in a couple of days.

"I've just received her letter, Professor," she let him know, smiling back. "I had a favour to ask, if you don't mind."

"Let us hear it," he replied pleasantly.

Izzy tool a deep breath before talking. "I'd like to be referred by my real last name from now on, if that was possible, Professor."

He nodded. "I'll make sure that will happen. Anything else, _Miss Black_?"

She shook her head, grinning. "I have all I want, right now." Izzy turned on her heel and walked back to the Gryffindor table, satisfied with herself. On her way, she heard several people commenting the morning news.

"_So he was innocent all his time…"_

"_I always thought there was something strange about the story."_

"_The real bloke escaped?!"_

_Funny how everyone seems to be so perceptive now,_ she thought as she made her way back to Ginny's side.

"What was that all about?" Ginny asked her with an eyebrow raised.

"Nothing," she replied. "Just making sure people get my name right."

---

Less than one hour later, Lavander Brown, who had heard it from Parvati, who had heard it from her twin sister Padma, who had heard it from some other Ravenclaw that had overheard Professor Flitwick talking to Snape, spread halfway through the Gryffindors that Izzy Davis was actually Izzy Black, Sirius Black's lovechild with Professor Davis. Being the juicy news of the day, the rumours, which Izzy had promptly confirmed in a very natural and very proud tone, spread like the plague and, by lunchtime, the half the school knew it.

"This is just the way it is supposed to be," Izzy said as she, along with Harry, Hermione and Ginny, left the Hospital Wing around two that afternoon from visiting Ron. "I felt like I was lying to everyone for the past two years."

"Well, technically, you really were," Hermione pointed out. "Mostly by omission but nobody will blame you, considering the circumstances."

Just as Hermione said that, Hagrid appeared right in front of them, to their surprise.

"Oh, hello, yeh four," Hagrid greeted them happily. "How are yeh doin'?" he asked before turning to Izzy and Ginny. "I saw yeh two signed in fer my class next year. Yeh know, I always saw somethin' familiar in those eyes o' yers, Izzy. Now, I get why – they're jus' like yer father's, aren' they?"

Izzy nodded, smiling. "You heard it already," she said.

"Course I did. Almost whole school already knows. I've got to admit I cursed yer old man pretty hard when I thought he was guilty," Hagrid told her, looking down. "But I was wrong. Good kid he was at school. Kept gettin' in trouble with Harry's dad, though."

She chuckled. "Mum mentioned it once or twice."

"Mia... Those two were always together in their seventh year. Could barely keep their hands off each other an' got 'emselves in trouble with McGonagall once or twice 'cause o' it. Tell him I said 'hi' for me when yeh see him, will yeh?" he asked her.

Izzy nodded in response as the large man turned to the others.

"How's Ron? Heard he hit his head yesterday an' landed himself in the Hospital Win'."

"He'll fine. His skull is pretty hard," Hermione told him. "We heard Buckbeak escaped."

Hagrid nodded with a smile. "Yeah… can't 've tied him up properly," he said. "I was worried this mornin', mind… thought he mighta met Professor Lupin on the grounds, but Lupin says he never ate anythin' las' night…"

"What?" Harry asked quickly.

"Blimey, haven' yeh heard yet?" Hagrid said, his smile fading a little. He lowered his voice, even though there was nobody in sight. "Er… Snape told all the Slytherins this mornin'… Thought everyone'd know by now… Professor Lupin's a werewolf, see. An' he was loose on the grounds las' night.... He's packin' now, o' course."

"He's packing?" Ginny asked. "Why?"

"Leavin', isn' he?" Hagrid said, looking surprised that she had to ask. "Resigned first thin' this mornin'. Says he can't risk it happenin again."

"I'm going to see him," Harry declared immediately

"But if he's resigned doesn't sound like there's anything you can do…" Hermione said.

"I don't care. I still want to see him. I'll meet you in the common room later," he told them, turning around.

"Wait," Izzy said as she joined him. "I'm going too."

At the speed they walked, they reached Remus's office in barely five minuted. The door was open when they got there and he had already packed most of his things.

"I saw you two coming," he said, turning around when he heard Harry and Izzy coming into the room.

"We just saw Hagrid," Harry said. "And he said you'd resigned. It's not true, is it?"

"I'm afraid it is," he replied sourly.

"Why?" Izzy asked. "We don't care you're a werewolf! Just because you have a problem, that doesn't make you evil!"

Remus smiled at her. "You know, that's very similar to what your mother told me when she found out, Izzy. But not everyone thinks the way you do. This time tomorrow, the owls will start arriving from parents… They will not want a werewolf teaching their children. And after last night, I see their point," he stated, turning to Harry. "I could have bitten you, Hermione or Ron.... That must never happen again."

"You're the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had!" Harry protested. "Quirrel was weird and had that little problem of having Voldemort coming out of the back of his head and Lockhart was an idiot that gave us classes about himself instead of defence. Don't go!"

Remus shook his head. "I won't put the students in such a risk. Besides, it's not like we'll never see each other again. We'll be in touch especially now that Sirius is back home." He closed his truck but not before removing a very particular piece of blank parchment and holding it out to Harry. "I trust you'll use this for us, Harry."

"What's that?" Izzy asked, peaking to see the piece of parchment.

Harry hesitated for a second in telling her. But it didn't take him long to realize she had proved herself worthy of the map already. _After all the sneaking she did yesterday to get to the West Tower…_ "This, Izzy, is the Marauder's map," he told her. "I guess we'll be sharinge it next year."

---

**Grimmauld Place**

Sirius woke up feeling surprisingly rested. The room that surrounded him was unfamiliar… actually, not really, he realized after a few seconds of consciousness. It looked completely different than he remembered, yet familiar enough for him to see that he was in 12 Grimmauld Place's master bedroom. The room seemed lighter, homier, less… cruel.

His brain wasn't in full function yet. The memories were fuzzy and returning one by one. The confrontation in the Shrieking Shack, Remus transforming and Wormtail getting away, the Dementors, Harry saving him… Then it was all clearer. Dumbledore had sent him to Grimmauld Place and Mia had been there right before everything got really fuzzy again and all he could remember was her voice telling him he needed to stay awake and responding to his love declaration. He looked around, searching for her, but she was nowhere in the room.

It had been so long… He could still feel her arms enveloping him like she had done last night, after spending months watching her from a distance in Hogwarts.

In the moment he tried to sit up on the bed, causing every muscle of his torso to ache, the bedroom's door opened to reveal the person he had been looking for. Mia. Her face visibly lightened when she saw he was awake and she entered, closing the door behind her. "I was starting to think you were never going to wake up," she said softly.

He didn't say a word and just stared at her. Part of him was still telling him he was sleeping; that what he was seeing at the moment was part of a fantasy; that he had hallucinated the whole thing last night. And he kept repeating it to himself stoically until she sat on the edge of the bed and reached for his hand warily. He shook all over, feeling her touch and he knew in that moment that she was real.

Mia noticed his reaction. The emotions were so clear on his face. She had freaked out too. Thirteen years. That was how long they had had to live without each other… and now a reunion. It was surely overwhelming. She wanted to hug him now, to hold him close, but, after what had happened last time, she wasn't sure if she should.

"How… how do you feel?" she asked him. "Are your ribs hurting you? I've fixed them but they're bond to be sore for a day or two."

"It's bearable," he said, his voice still rough from the sleep. "Thank you for taking care of me."

She gave him a soft smile. "You don't need to thank me," she breathed.

He smiled back and made an effort to straight himself up and to pull her closer into a hug. She was very careful not to hurt him this time but it still hurt a bit. "I… I missed you so much," he said after a few minutes of silence Sirius pulled back a few inches, looking her deeply in the eyes and caressing her cheekbones. "Merlin, Mia. It's been so long."

She shook her head. "Time doesn't matter. It was not enough to make me love you any less," she assured him.

Sirius smiled again – two smiles in a matter of minutes were a personal record for the last thirteen years. "How long did I sleep?"

Mia sighed, fixing the pillows behind him so he could lie against them before she started talking. Her throat ached when she thought how wrong things could have turned, how she could have lost him forever. "Almost a day straight. It's seven in the afternoon" she said. "You were pretty messed up when you arrived and you really need to take it easy for today and maybe tomorrow, Sirius. I mean it. Magical healing can only help so much."

Sirius nodded, seeing so much worry in her eyes. He was sure that just having her around would do part of the healing by itself.

"I need to tell you something, Sirius," she continued, trying not to smile too wide. "Dumbledore was here a few hours after you arrived. He told me… he told me that Harry and Hermione gave their memories of what happened in the Shrieking Shack to the Minister. He gave you a full pardon, Sirius. You're free."

He just stared at her. "What?"

"You don't have to run anymore, Sirius," she told him, half smiling, half crying. "You are a free man. They announced it in the Daily Prophet this morning. The Aurors are after Wormtail now."

"I'm… I'm free?" he asked in surprise.

Mia nodded. "You don't have to run anymore, Sirius. You're free."

That sounded like music to his ears. And all he could think right now was that they would finally be able to live they life they had planned together. He closed his eyes for a moment, once more trying to see if that was a dream or reality. When he opened them, Mia was still, there, smiling tearfully at him, and he thanked Merlin for giving him freedom and, mostly, that woman.

"You're amazing, you know that?" He said. "You… actually waited for me. You believed in me. I really don't deserve someone as good as you."

"You have me anyway," she told him, her hand reaching for his face. "You know you always will." Mia smiled playfully for a moment. "You need to shave though. And a haircut."

"Yes, mum," he said jokingly.

Suddenly, his joke reminded her of something else… or rather someone – their daughter. She needed to tell him about her… and she knew just the perfect way. "I need to get something. Wait here, okay?"

She disappeared before he could reply and was back a couple of minutes later with a small, flower themed box on her hands. She sat back on the bed before opening the box and searching for something in it.

Sirius tried to peak and saw that the box contained photographs. Moments later, she handed him one. Sirius stared at her inquisitively before looking down at the photo. It was a baby. A newborn baby, to be more specific. But why was she showing him that? He could tell that wasn't Harry. "Who is it?"

Mia took a deep breath before saying the words – she had anticipated that moment for so long… "Our baby," she whispered.

Sirius could swear he had stopped breathing when she said that. _Our baby, _her voice echoed in his mind. "Our… er… what?" He knew he wasn't making any sense, but he felt like he had just suffered a stroke or an aneurism.

"That is our daughter, Sirius. An hour after she was born," Mia said.

"We… you… you were pregnant?" he asked in an astounded tone.

Mia nodded, looking him in the eyes. "I only found out when I was in hiding. I wanted to tell you but I couldn't contact anyone…" She looked down at the box again and removed another picture to hand him.

This time, when he saw it, the shock was double. The picture had been taken in front of a pyramid and there, along with Mia and Harry, there was the girl that had helped him escape from the common room and on the West Tower. "I… I know her," he gasped, looking up at Mia. "This is her? Our daughter?"

"Yes," Mia confirmed. "Her name is Isabelle."

_Oh Merlin, _he thought. Of course. That made all the sense in the universe. That girl… she had looked so familiar to him, yet he hadn't been able to place her. He felt stupid for a moment – she looked so much like Mia. That was why she had saved him, why she had been so worried he might be caught by the Dementors. Because he was her father. _You'll know soon,_ she had promised him when he asked her why she was helping him. "Izzy," he murmured, his voice filled with pride.

Mia was surprised by his knowledge. "Yeah, that's what we usually call her. How did you know?"

"I heard Harry calling her that," he mumbled. "Merlin, I can't believe… She's really our daughter, isn't she? I… I wondered why that girl would help a supposed murderer escape like that but I never considered… Just… Bloody Hell, I'm her father! I… I'm a dad!"

Her eyes clouded with tears and she felt like a bloody cry-baby. But the look on his face was so… unbelievably happy. It was so odd feeling like everything was completely fine. He wasn't a fugitive anymore and she had just told him about their daughter. They were just blissfully happy at that moment. "I take it you're satisfied."

He didn't respond, too lost in his thoughts. The whole situation was overwhelming in the good sense of the world. "Merlin, Mia. I don't know what to say," he said, his voice more emotional that she had ever heard. "Thank you so much."

"Thank _you_," she corrected him. "I was miserable until I found out I was pregnant. That baby saved me and then Harry came too and if it wasn't for the two of them , I wouldn't have lasted knowing you were stuck in that hell of a prison. Just promise me you'll stay now," she requested desperately. "I need you here, Sirius. I've waited for so long."

"Of course I'll stay," he promised, caressing her soft cheek. "Merlin, we'll never be apart again if I have a say in it."

She smiled at him and, when their lips met, it was like they had never been apart, despite the thirteen years in between. The world around them disappeared and it was just the two of them trying desperately to express their feelings in that kiss. And, feeling his lips against Mia's, his hands touching her face and her sweet taste in his mouth, he could feel the pain of the last thirteen years fading piece by piece. He was the happiest bloke in the universe because he knew she would heal him – she always did.

**A/N: A eight-page long chapter... I've just beat my record! I hope you liked it! Took me loads to get it right... What do you think? Worth the wait? Review!**


	16. Reconnecting

When Sirius woke up on the following morning and, still with his eyes closed, stretched his arm to reach for Mia, he saw she wasn't there. Where was she? He remembered very clearly having fallen asleep by her side, feeling her warmth against his skin…

He groaned, getting up and, for a moment, he had to sit back again because the room started spinning. _Too much time lying down_, he concluded. On the bedside table, he saw the long unopened envelope that his daughter (he grinned like a lunatic just thinking of the word) had given him, saying that it contained his possessions from when he had been arrested. Sirius opened it to find his wand and a very particular item that he always used to carry around in a chain around his neck during the months after Mia had gone into hiding – the ring he was supposed to have used to propose to her. With a sigh, he placed the wand and the ring in the drawer of the bedside table before he managed to get up again, now the vertigo gone, and walked downstairs, hoping to find Mia.

On his way down, he couldn't help being surprised. The house was so different… Less gloomy and a lot warmer. The creepy dark objects that used to be lying all over the place had disappeared and the portraits of family members were also gone, being replaced by little things, like framed photos of Harry and Izzy or muggle motionless paintings that certainly wouldn't talk back to them like the old portraits did. For the first time in his life, he actually felt comfortable in that house. As he descended the floors, he started to smell breakfast coming from the kitchen, immediately marking it as his destination.

When he arrived there, he saw Mia with her back turned to him, cooking by the stove. Her hair was pulled up in a messy ponytail and she was wearing an apron on top of her pyjamas. Sirius grinned. "Morning," he greeted her from the doorway.

She looked at him in surprise and gave him a smile. "Hey, I thought you were still asleep. I was going to take breakfast upstairs."

He shook his head as he approached her. "No need. I'm already here."

Mia kissed him softly on the lips when he got close enough, enjoying the ease of the moment. She smiled against his lips. "Go sit at the table. I'll bring the food in a minute."

Sirius obliged and, as promised, she joined him by the table a minute later, bringing two plates full of food along.

"Now, eat up. We need to work on getting you healthy for when the kids come home," she told him.

"Well, I feel like a turkey before Christmas. Feed me up and have me for dinner," he joked, before taking a bite of his breakfast.

Mia laughed. "I missed your jokes," she stated. "Lulu's good the humour but not as much as you are."

"Oh, Lulu's still around?" he asked in surprise. "I'm surprised she didn't walk on us or anything. She used to do that all the time."

"Well, that's probably because she lives in her own flat and I told her not to come by until I said so," she told him. "I wanted you just to myself for a few days."

Sirius smiled. "Smart."

"Actually, Lulu is sort of a funny story. I will tell you about it later."

"Why later? Now I want to know about it," he said. "I haven't been able to hear many funny stories lately."

Mia nodded silently, trying not to think of all that he had been though. "Alright," she said. "So, do you remember my… er… parents?"

"Sure I do. Wonderful people. Pity they never got my name right," he said sarcastically. "I always wondered how you could be related to them."

She smiled at the irony of his words. "Well, turns out, I'm not."

He raised an eyebrow before taking another bite of his food. "You're not what?"

"Related to them," she specified. "Apparently I'm adopted. And guess who my birth mother is."

Sirius stared at her for several seconds before realizing what she meant. "No…" he murmured.

She nodded. "Yes."

"You're joking, right?" he asked. "Lulu? So I wasn't imagining it when I thought the two of you looked kind of similar."

Mia shook her head. "You weren't. I was really angry when she told me but then I just got used to the idea. She'd taken care of me practically since I was born, which is a lot more than what some mothers can say."

"So, if Lulu is your mother, who's your father?" he inquired.

"Gabriel McKinnon. Remember him?" she told him. "I guess that made me Marlene's cousin."

"How old was she anyway? Eighteen?"

"Seventeen," Mia informed him. "But, as I said, let's talk about this later. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," he told her, receiving a doubtful look in return. "Really, I am. These hours of sleep helped a lot. Don't worry too much, Mia."

Mia sighed. "You say that because you didn't see yourself when you arrived, Sirius," she told him. "When you passed out I thought you were dead… my heart nearly stopped! You can't blame me for worrying now."

Seeing the worry in her face, Sirius put his fork down and cupped her face. "I'm alright, Mia. I promise that you'll be the first to know if I'm not. I didn't go through all this trouble to be free just to die right when that happens. Trust me."

"You know I do," she whispered in return.

He grinned and placed a kiss on her forehead, turning back to his plate. "So, speaking of happier subjects, tell me about our daughter. I've already managed to get to know Harry a bit but I barely know anything about her."

Mia smiled. She had been waiting for him to ask that. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything you remember," he told her. "Her birthday, her full name, school, friends…"

She took a deep breath. "Alright. Izzy was born in December 15th 1981 and her full name is Isabelle Kathleen Black but she used to go by Davis in school. She hates not being able to use her real last name and so do I, so I'm pretty sure she's working on spreading the word that she's your kid by now. She's finishing her second year in Hogwarts even though she was supposed to still be in her first – Dumbledore made a little exception so I didn't have to leave her behind when I started teaching. Harry is pretty protective over her and he sees her as a little sister just as she sees him as a big brother. Her best friend is Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley's sister. Unlike me, Izzy can fly a broom. She likes pranks but prefers seeing the results rather than actually playing them on people. I really can't remember anything else right now."

"That's a lot already," he said, trying to memorize every single trait Mia had indicated. "She can fly a broom, hum? Looks like she took after me in that one. Who taught her?"

Mia chuckled. "Lulu, obviously. You don't see me trying to teach her, do you? My lack of ability is already tragic by itself."

"Well, that certainly didn't change," Sirius said with a laugh. "So, when exactly does their term end?"

"Next Wednesday," she told him, laying her head on his shoulder. "We can go get them from the train together. Merlin, you're a free man now, can you believe it?"

Sirius sighed. "Not really. Hard to get used to it," he said. "This whole thing – me being here with you, we having a daughter and Harry – seems part of a very elaborate dream."

"You can say that again," she murmured before looking up at him. "Did I mention that you look a lot better now with your hair short again?"

"Looks like I have to thank my hairdresser, then. I may even kiss her," he told her in playful and slightly suggestive tone.

"Hum, is that a promise?" she asked with a grin.

He nodded but, in the moment he was about to kiss her, they heard the loud sound of the doorbell ringing upstairs, causing Mia to groan. "The interruptions begin again. Not even thirteen bloody years change it."

Sirius chuckled. "And I was starting to hope…"

They heard a small 'pop' behind them and, to his surprise, he turned to Kreacher standing there. "Mistress, Professor McGonagall is wants to talk to you and Master. May Kreacher let her in?"

"Sure, Kreacher. Take her to the living room, will you?" Mia requested the house-elf politely. "We'll meet her there as soon as we can."

The house-elf nodded before turning to Sirius. "Kreacher… er… happy to see Master Sirius back," he said in a tone a little too forced before popping out of the room again.

Sirius had a confused look on his face. "Kreacher? Being nice?"

"He's always nice to people as long as they treat him well," Mia told him, "which, by the way, you never did. Just give him a chance and you'll see I'm right. Kreacher is a great help and the kids love having him around."

Sirius shrugged. If she said so… He quickly finished eating his breakfast and followed Mia up to the first floor, where he entered what used to be the very dark and intimidating drawing room. He was impressed to see Mia had turned it into a rather pleasant room and gotten rid of the family tapestry.

McGonagall got up when she heard them coming in and gave them one of her very rare smiles.

"Good morning, Minerva," Mia greeted her.

"Mia," the professor acknowledged, sitting down. "And Sirius Black. Thirteen years later and you still have that look that makes me think you're about to do something you shouldn't."

Sirius laughed as he sat by Mia's side in one of the sofas. "What can I say? It's who I am. Still cheering for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, I assume?"

"That's something that won't change anytime soon. Your godson won us the cup this year," she told him quite proudly. "But, about important matters, Albus sent me here to discuss a few things with you concerning your pardon. The minister is planning on awarding you the Order of Merlin, First Class for having unmasked Pettigrew."

Sirius laughed scornfully. "Like he gave Wormtail when he 'heroically confronted me'? You can tell Fudge to shove the Order of Merlin up his a…"

McGonagall coughed loudly before he could finish. "I understand your feelings, Sirius, but watch your language when you express them, please. I'll make sure the Minister knows you have _politely declined_ the award. The minister would also like to give you a money-compensation for the time you spent wrongly in prison," it only took her a look at Sirius's face to realize he's like the money to have the same fate as the award, " which I will decline in your behalf as well. Also, as for your… Animagus condition, Albus had to reveal it to the minister to explain your escape and get your pardon, therefore, you're a registered Animagus from now on. There will be no penalty for your earlier lack of registration, considering the circumstances."

"Right, he didn't already serve the penalty for that times thirteen, or anything…" Mia murmured sardonically.

"Something like that," she admitted. "I'm still waiting to hear how three sixteen-year-old boys managed to become Animagus, but we will leave it for another occasion. Now, concerning the press, Hogwarts has received several owls asking for your location so the papers could get a statement from you, Sirius. We assumed you weren't interested in such and denied it to all of them."

"Can't they just mind their own business and leave us alone?" Mia asked with a groan.

"I'm fresh news, Mia. Fresh News sells papers and that is all they want," Sirius mumbled.

McGonagall nodded in agreement. "I'm afraid that is the truth, unfortunately. Though, I think you'll be happy to know that your daughter demanded to be known by Isabelle Black in school. She seems to be quite proud and very eager to meet you, Sirius."

Sirius grinned. "That's my girl," he said proudly. He really couldn't wait to actually meet her. "Tell her I'll be waiting for her and Harry in Kings Cross next Wednesday, will you?"

"I think she's already aware of that," the professor said, getting up. "But I will gladly pass on the message to her. By the way, I don't know if you heard it already but Remus Lupin resigned yesterday from his position as the DADA teacher."

"What?! Why?" Mia asked in indignation.

"Mia, it's Moony," Sirius said in an almost bored tone. He couldn't say he wasn't surprised but it wasn't that difficult to guess why. "He's an awfully self-conscious bloke. My guess would be he thinks he is a danger to the students." He looked at McGonagall for confirmation. "Am I close?"

"Very," she confirmed. "Also, someone was _kind _enough to spread it among the parents that he was a werewolf and they are not too happy."

"Snape, obviously," Mia murmured. "Who else knew Remus a werewolf and hated him? He's off to get me and Remus since the year begun."

"It doesn't matter who did it," McGonagall stated. "It's done and we can't change it now. Professor Dumbledore has already talked to Professor Lupin but his decision is made. I'd love to stay a little longer but I don't have much time – the Weasley twins seem to have taken upon them to raise a little hell in your honour and got themselves a full afternoon of detention with me. I only came here personally to make sure the two of you were alright, which seems to be the case."

"Thank you for coming, Professor," Mia said, getting up to walk her to the door.

The Professor raised her hand, mentioning for her to sit down again. "You're welcome. There's no need to take me to the door – I believe can find the way out on my own, Amelia. I give the two of you my best wishes," she said before making her way out of the room and leaving the couple alone again.

Mia sighed before leaning closer to Sirius and snuggling against his side on the couch. He moved his arm to wrap it around her form but winced, feeling the familiar pain on his ribs.

She immediately pulled away, looking at him alarmed. "Are you okay? Do you need me to get something for the pain?"

He shook his head. "I've already told you I'm fine, Mia. Just a little sore," he told her, pulling her close again. He wouldn't let his stupid ribs ruining a perfectly happy moment with her. "You're all I need to ease the pain. Besides, magical healing is a wonderful thing – if I were a muggle, I'd be crying like a little girl right now."

Now on ease, she laughed. "Yeah, well, you're lucky to have a former healer as a girlfriend," Mia told him.

"Why did you stop being one, anyway? You're a great healer," he asked her.

Mia shrugged. "I just didn't feel happy doing it anymore," she stated. "I needed a change and then Dumbledore suggested I became a teacher in Hogwarts and it felt good, though sometimes I'd prefer to be kept on the dark in what concerns the trouble Harry gets himself into."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "He can't be that bad – he has Lily's genes, after all. She hated pranking."

"Oh, I wish it was pranking," she said with a laugh. "Let's just say that the stuff he did this year to save you make the bottom of his list of trouble. I'll let him fill you in later. Now tell me what _you _are planning to do now that you're free."

"I have no idea," Sirius told her honestly. "Maybe I'll just enjoy being free for a year and then I'll start thinking of it. What do you say?"

"I think that may be a great idea," she agreed. "As long as I get to enjoy it with you. As much as I like teaching, a break from all the Hogwarts drama might come handy. And for now, I just need to stay here with you. I've spent more than enough time separated from you, Sirius."

He didn't respond and just ran his hand up and down her arm. As much as he hated to think she was giving up her life for him, he was selfishly glad he'd be able to have her around at all times...

"Tell me about Azkaban," she said in a very low, almost fearful voice. Mia felt him tense immediately, so she decided to continue. "I know it is bad and it probably hurts to remember but I… I want to understand. I want to know how to help you."

He sighed – he knew he would have to talk about it sometime. He had just hoped it wouldn't have to be this soon. _But the sooner I get it off my chest, the sooner I can go on with my life_. "It was cold," he told her. "Really cold all the time. Believe me, I was on the run all winter and not even the coldest day was as cold as it was inside that place. In the first days, I thought I'd go mad. I could hear them, the other prisoners, whispering all the time. Then, there were the memories – I had gone to James and Lily's place in the day they… Hagrid had Harry and I saw James's dead body lying by the stairs. Lily's was upstairs, I think. I never saw it."

Mia's breath caught and she reached for his hand. She couldn't imagine the pain that had caused him – she remembered seeing her dead sister's body when she had died but she had been too young to understand immediately what it meant.

"That was all I could remember in the first few days. But then, I'm not sure how, but I started to get memories of you. It was like I was clutching them so hard that the Dementors couldn't take them away from me. They were almost the only happy thought I managed to have, so I held on to them. Every day when I went to sleep, I pretended you were there with me. It wasn't the same but it kept me sane. As the time passed, I saw everyone else there going mad and, eventually, it was like they were just not there anymore. Sometimes I wished I was like that but I knew I owed you. I had to stay sane for you because I had promised to come back." When he finished, he noticed her body was shaking against his. She was crying. He pulled her closer and placed a kiss on top of her head. "Hey, it's over now, Mia."

"I know!" she said, between sobs. "But it's… not fair! You didn't deserve to go through that!"

He shook his head and shifted her so he could look her in the eyes. "Look, being here with you, knowing that you've waited, that we have a daughter and, well, a son… it heals the wounds. Mostly the ones that you can't see. I don't want that place to affect us more that it has already done. Maybe I shouldn't have told you anything…"

Mia shook her head, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "No, you should," she told him. "I'm sorry. I just hate to think of you in that place."

He cupped her face with his hands. "Let's leave Azkaban behind us. Let's create happy memories to cover the bad ones, okay? All I want now is to go on with my life and forget that."

She nodded and leaned closer, wrapping her arms around him carefully. "I love you, you know that?" she breathed. "I'm so glad you're back, Sirius."

He ran his hand through her hair soothingly. "I'm glad to be back," he replied softly.

**A/N: An all Sirius/Mia chapter this time. Hope you liked it. Review!**

**By the way, next chapter will be a... well, pretty special one. Took me loads to come up with it...**


	17. The Question

**A/N: There is an M version of this chapter available in my profile with the name 'The Question'. Is not _that _much mature but, well, has a few more details...**

Only five days after Sirius had arrived (and one day before the kids were to come back home) he already felt so much better now thanks to Mia's care. She had done everything she could to make him feel better, just happy to have him back.

As, he observed her in silence from their room's door, he couldn't help feeling nostalgic – that was the girl he had met when he was eleven, who had grown to become the woman he loved and, now, the mother of his child. He tried to picture her pregnant – having children was a dream he had always planned to accomplish with her; nevertheless, he hadn't been able to be there when that happened, a fact that he hated to acknowledge.

But he still had her in the end – just a month earlier he felt completely lost and now here he was with a family and looking right at the woman he loved. She was wearing a muggle knee-length navy blue dress. It wasn't the kind of dress that would make a man gasp just from looking at but he couldn't help admiring her in it as she rummaged through the wardrobe trying to pick things she didn't need so she could take them somewhere else.

He took a few steps further and wrapped his arms around Mia's waist, kissing her neck. She jumped slightly in surprise before turning around to face him. "Sirius… I didn't know you were there. Were you watching me? Again?" she asked playfully.

He smiled. "Of course I was. Someone as beautiful as you deserves to be admired. And who else would I be looking at than the love of my life?"

She smiled hearing those words. "Well, aren't you romantic, Mr. Black?" she said.

"Only for you," he declared, grinning. "Really, you can ask any one of my ex-dates. I might be good with the charms but the romance was all for you."

"Well, I'm glad you say that," she said.

His lips found hers and they shared a long but soft kiss. Mia's arms wrapped around his neck and her hands roamed through his hair. He felt his need of her growing by the second. Every touch, every sigh made him want her more. He remembered how soft she used to feel under his hands; how he would touch her like she was more fragile than glass and more precious than diamonds. He needed to do… to feel that again. It was like having water after years of thirst. He wanted her so much right now.

He wasn't sure how they had gotten to the bed between all the kissing but he did feel himself landing there, his lips never leaving Mia's.

But the bliss didn't last so long as her rational part took over, making her pull her lips away from his. "We can't," she panted, sitting up on the bed. "We… you're still healing, Sirius."

He gave her a look that seemed the one of a little kid after having his favourite candy taken right out of his mouth, even though it was right in front of him as he sat up too. "Mia, if we stop now there will be no more healing because I'll be dead. I swear I'm not gonna have a heart attack and die in the act, although I think that would be a brilliant way to go."

"Sirius, don't say that!" she said, horrified.

"I was joking. Mia, if I feel good enough to beg, don't you think I may feel good enough to… well, receive?" he asked her.

Mia bit her inner lip. His heath was more important than their desire but he did have a point. Plus, he had visibly improved ever since he had arrived to Grimmauld Place. "You sure?"

"Bloody well I am," he replied. And, as he pulled her back to the kiss, Mia let herself go.

In some ways, it felt like the first time – it was, in certain point of view. They had changed since the last time their bodies had been so close together, so the sense of exploring something new was there along with the nervousness.

"I'm detrained in this kind of thing," Mia murmured against his lips.

"It's probably like riding a broom," he said roughly. "Once you do it, you never forget."

Mia groaned. "I always crashed while riding a broom."

"Just a metaphor, love," he pointed out. "You never crashed doing _this_."

---

Mia smiled against his chest as she felt him draw little circles on her back. It was so relaxing. At the moment, her body seemed to weigh just as much as a feather. Her ear was pressed against his heart, hearing as it raced every time she moved. "I love you," she whispered.

Sirius smiled to himself. "I love you too," he replied. He honestly couldn't imagine a more blissful moment than that one. Making love to her again was… perfect. It sounded corny, but that was just how it felt. And maybe it was that bliss that made him say what he said next – not that he would ever regret it. He knew, all of a sudden, that the moment had came, lifting a heavy weight out of his shoulders. "Marry me."

Mia looked up and stared at him, dumbstruck. Had he just proposed? Her brain had completely stopped as she stared at him with a blank face. He had actually…

Seeing the look on her face, Sirius realized he might as well continue. "I was planning on proposing the night you had to leave for hiding," he told her. "I had a whole speech ready. I still remember parts of it where I would tell you how much I loved you and all the usual stuff. But then that owl from Dumbledore came and you know the rest." He reached for the bedside table and opened the drawer, removing the ring from it before revealing it to her, only to see her eyes widen even more. "This was the ring I was supposed to give you that night. I had it with me all time until I was taken to Azkaban."

Still speechless, Mia observed the ring. It was beautiful, classic-looking and made of gold paved with several small diamonds, a slightly bigger one on the centre of it. But she really didn't care about how pretty it might look. She just cared about what it meant.

"I don't really have a really long speech about our epic love story this time. But I'm hoping saying 'I love you' will cover that up," he told her. "So, Mia Davis, will you marry me?"

"Yes," Mia whispered. Her eyes finally stopped looking glassy and she looked him right in the eyes. "Of course I'll marry you, Sirius. I'd marry you right now if you asked me to."

"Only wearing a sheet?" he asked jokingly. Sirius couldn't state by words how happy she looked at that moment. Probably as much as he felt.

She smiled back at him. "Well, it is white, isn't it?"

Sirius chuckled and reached for her left hand, slowly slipping the ring onto her finger. He saw Mia bit her lower lip. "You're not gonna start crying on me, are you?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "It's just that… do you have any idea how many times I imagined this moment?" her voice had a slight note of disbelief. "I just… It's finally happened Sirius. After all this time, we finally got engaged." She started laughing at the end of that sentence.

He grinned. "It only took me a little more than a decade."

"I know that if it was up to you, we'd be married for a long time," Mia told him, moving closer, so her head was resting on his chest now. "Today seems to be too perfect to be truth. I was worth the wait."

"The engagement or the lovemaking part?" he asked her with a silly grin on his face.

"Both," she responded, her face shifting into an even wider smile. "But I have to admit that you've exceeded yourself in the lovemaking part this time."

"Well, let's just say you've just gotten a concentrated dose of passion caused by a thirteen-year-long period of abstinence," Sirius let her know.

"Hum, is it gonna last?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm not sure," he started. "But that could be very easily verified."

Mia grinned and moved to lie on top of him. "Now you've made me curious."

---

It was only hours later that Mia managed to get up from the bed in order to get them something for dinner

"At the rate we're spending energy, we'll probably be dead by the end of the night if we don't eat anything soon," she told him as she used his discarded shirt in order to cover her naked body.

"Then let us be dead," he told her. "As I said before, this would be a brilliant way to go."

Mia chuckled. "I'm sure the kids would love to tell their friends how we had died of starvation because we were too busy shagging. It might make the headlines of the _Prophet_ for a few weeks."

He groaned. "Okay, that would be bad. Do you want me to do with you?"

She laughed. "Are you kidding me? Knowing you, you'd probably find a way to turn a simple trip to kitchen into several hours doing stuff we shouldn't do on top of the table. Just wait up here. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Sirius couldn't help admiring how alluring she looked just wearing his shirt as she left. He leaned down against the pillows, feeling more relaxed than he had in years. That was how he had dreamed things to turn out between him and Mia… except without the whole thirteen-year separation thing. But it was definitely close enough: long afternoons spent in bed making love without interruption, stolen kisses, and incessant love declarations. Sure, it was awfully corny but he didn't care – that was exactly what he had meant them to be.

Mia entered the room holding a tray that contained a few sandwiches and two butterbeers. She sat on the bed with her legs crossed and placed the tray between them. "It's later than I imagined. Almost eleven."

"Really?" he asked, reaching for a sandwich. "I thought it had just darkened outside."

"I guess we were too busy celebrating our engagement to notice," Mia stated with a laugh. "Merlin, we're in our thirties and we still act like bloody teenagers."

"Good times," he said after he finished chewing a bit of his sandwich. "I kind of miss the whole sneaking in Hogwarts thing. The stuff we had to pull in order to be left alone in my dorm long enough to shag…"

"It was fun," she agreed with a smile. "Though it sounds kind of weird now, considering I've been a teacher there for the past two years and the kids…"

"No," he interrupted her, raising a hand. "Don't go there, Mia. No mixing kids, especially no mixing Izzy, with… that. Please, don't. She'll never, ever date if I have a word to say about it."

Mia snorted. Somehow, she had always imagined he'd be just like that when it came to Izzy and the provider of romantic enlightenment for Harry. "That's so cute, Sirius," she said. "You've only seen our daughter twice in your life and you're already acting all overprotective over her. You're such a guy."

Sirius pretended to look offended. "Is that a problem, Miss Davis?"

"Of course not," she told him naturally. "You wouldn't be my Sirius if you weren't like that."

He grinned. "Your Sirius, hum? I like the sound of that. We've got to be a match made in a very shiny place of heaven. Will you marry me, Mia?"

"You've already asked," she replied with a smile. "And I'm pretty sure I accepted."

"Hum, so when exactly do you want to do it? And please keep in mind that I'd rather it happened soon."

Mia sighed. She didn't want to wait very long either. She thought for a moment or two before the decision popped into her mind. "The day after tomorrow."

Sirius chuckled. "No, really, when do you want to get married?"

"The day after tomorrow," she repeated. "I mean, it's not impossible or anything. Dumbledore is the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot – he has authorization to perform binding ceremonies. We could just floo him tomorrow and ask him to do it. Plus, by that time Izzy and Harry will be back home."

Sirius stared at her for a moment, waiting for her to say something on the lines of 'just kidding'. "And I thought you women loved your big weddings full of lace and flowers."

She raised an eyebrow. "Do I look like the kind of woman who wants to make the event of the year out of her wedding? I just want to be married to you, never mind how we do it. Sure, we could have a few people there apart from us, Dumbledore and the kids. Lulu for sure. Maybe the Weasleys, Remus and McGonagall too. I wish I could get Elizabeth too but she seems to have vanished from the planet… We can do it."

"Alright then," he agreed, convinced. "We're getting married the day after tomorrow."

"Finally," she breathed.

"And I want to make love to you again right now," Sirius told her

Mia smiled, reaching for her wand and levitating the tray that she had placed on the bed to a chair. "What's stopping you?"

"Nothing at all," he stated, pulling her by the arm so they were close enough for their lips to touch again.

**A/N2: Proposal AND shagging in the same chapter. Nice hum? I hope you liked it. Check the M version too if you want... Review!**


	18. Meeting

Mia woke up slowly as she felt herself being kissed on the shoulder. She opened one eye and saw the light filling the room through the room's window. _Morning, _she thought, so incredibly refreshed that she could almost sing.

Feeling Sirius planting another kiss, now on her neck, she sighed – it was so wonderful and almost dreamlike to wake up next to his naked body again. She shifted on the bed and turned to face him.

"Hi," she whispered with a smile, which he promptly returned.

"Hey," he replied, placing a hand on her cheek and pulled her face closer so he could kiss her lips.

She smiled against his lips and proceeded to kiss him back with all she had. "You're a so much better way to wake up than an alarm clock… What time is it?"

"Still nine," he told her, playing with a strand of her hair. "You still look beautiful when you sleep, you know that?"

Mia chuckled. "Sure I do," she said sarcastically. "My hair must be a mess and I'm pretty sure I have a pillow face."

"All part of the charms," Sirius assured her. "Your messy hair and your pillow face are a lot prettier than that stone wall I had to wake up to in you-know-where. And by tomorrow they will belong to my lawfully wedded wife."

She smiled and instinctively raised her left hand to her line of sight so she could see the ring. It was still there and it was still beautiful – more now in the sunlight.

"It looks great on you," he told her softly, grinning back at her.

Mia nodded and shifted on the bed again. Resting her head on his chest. "I don't wanna get up today."

"That makes two of us," Sirius replied, running his hand up and down her back. "But we really need to contact Dumbledore if we want to get married tomorrow."

"And to tell Lulu… and to go get the kids from the station," she mumbled. "You're finally going to officially meet our daughter today. How does that make you feel?"

"Terrified," he confessed.

Mia looked up at him. "What for? Izzy has never met you and she already loves you."

"Exactly," he stated. "She may not like how I turn out to be, Mia. All I know about parenting is what I saw my parents do. And I don't need to tell you that they sucked at the job."

She sighed and rolled to her side and looked at his slightly worried face. "Remember when we went to the Alps with Lily and James? When I thought I might be pregnant but, turns out, I wasn't?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I do," he said. Part of him still felt sad over the fact that it had been a false alarm.

"You told me that day that we had enough bad examples from our parents to teach us how to be decent ones," Mia told him. "Harry has spoken to you for an hour and he already thinks you're the best. Izzy won't be any different. She calls you Daddy, you know? Not 'my father', not 'Dad'… Daddy. You wouldn't believe the amount of love she has saved all her life just for you. And I know you already love her unconditionally. She's not asking for anything more than that, Sirius."

He looked back at her with a smile on his face. "You're amazing, you know?"

Mia shrugged, snuggling closer to him again. "Just as much as you are."

---

When Mia came down to the kitchen as Sirius took a shower upstairs, she almost had a heart attack when she saw someone else was there. It was only a few seconds later that she recognized who it was.

"Merlin, Lulu, are you trying to scare me to death?!" Mia told her mother.

Lulu smiled at her as she calmly sat by the table, serving herself with the breakfast Kreacher had made. "I think five days alone with our favourite former fugitive were more than enough, don't you agree?"

"Actually, I was going to fire call you right after I had finished breakfast but you seem to have anticipated yourself," Mia pointed out, taking a seat in front of her.

"One can only wait so much to check on her daughter, don't you think?" Lulu pointed out with a grin. "You look very happy, Mia. I hadn't seen you like this since… well, I've never seen you this happy."

Mia smiled at her mother. "I feel happy," she replied. "I love him so much, Lulu. I can't believe I have him back… He's still my Sirius."

"How's he doing?" Lulu asked her, genuinely concerned.

"He's alright now. He was so… hurt when I got here. I thought my heart had stopped when he went limp in my arms," she informed her mother. "But he is okay now – stronger, happier. We talked about Azkaban and we settled that we want it in the past. He had a few nightmares in the first few days but only when he fell asleep by himself… I think he'll be just fine, Lulu."

Lulu smiled. "I had told you you'd have him back. And you seem to have been busy already, hum?" she said, nodding at the shirt her daughter was wearing to cover herself – clearly too long to be hers.

Mia blushed in embarrassment. "I had told you not to come until I said so. Having you figuring out those things is embarrassing, Lu."

"You didn't have a problem when you and lover boy shagged in your room while I was downstairs once or twice during Easter Break in your seventh year, did you?" Lulu pointed out.

Her face became even redder. "I didn't know you were my mother back then! And we cast a silencing charm! How can you possibly know?"

Lulu raised an eyebrow. "You were abnormally flushed when you came downstairs, Mia… And one of you definitely sucked at casting silencing charms. I hope, for the kids' sakes, you've learnt how to do a decent one."

She groaned, settling her elbow on the table and propping her head or her arm. "You're infuriating sometimes, Lulu. And, yes, I'm perfectly capable of casting a silencing charm these days, thank you."

Her mother chuckled right before she noticed the tiny shinning ring around Mia's finger. "Is that an…"

"…engagement ring?" Mia finished for her. "Yes it is. I'd get a day off tomorrow if I were you or else you'll miss my wedding."

Lulu looked at her in disbelief. "You're kidding," she said.

"No, I'm not," her daughter declared with a smile

"You're getting married _tomorrow_?"

Mia nodded. "Exactly. Brilliant, isn't it?"

"How long have you known that? When exactly did he propose?" her mother inquired.

"Yesterday," Mia replied. "I know it is a little short notice but it will be a really small thing. You don't even have to wear one of those uncomfortable new robes - just wear something you already have in your wardrobe. I'll probably end up doing the same. I've waited long enough to have Sirius forever, Lulu. You know I have."

"And I don't intend to make her wait even longer," a familiar voice said from the doorway. Mia turned around to see Sirius entering the kitchen, fully showered and dressed, and smiled at him. He approached her, placing a chaste kiss on her cheek and sitting by her side at the table and turning to Lulu. "Now, should I run for my life or am I safe here?"

Lulu raised an eyebrow at him. "You've lost me there, Sirius."

"Well, you know what they say about mothers-in-law," he pointed out with a playful smile that made Lulu laugh. "Should I worry about you becoming a hag whose only purpose in life is turning mine into hell?"

"That depends on the dowry you have to give for the girl," Lulu replied, faking a serious tone. "And keep in mind she's already bore your kid – that will cost you extra."

"Oh, how nice," Mia said sarcastically. "Now I'm being treated like a cow."

Sirius laughed and kissed her cheek again. "Just being old-fashioned, honey. I'd give her everything in my vault if she asked for it in exchange for you."

From her seat, Lulu groaned as she got up. "You two are still the same sickly romantic duo. I guess this is my cue to leave. Apparently, I have to convince my boss to give a free day tomorrow. It was nice to see you up and around, Sirius. And you won't need to worry about the hag turning your life into hell…"

"Thanks, Lulu," he replied. "I wouldn't want to be in the wrong end of your wand."

The older woman chuckled. "Believe me, you really wouldn't," she stated before making her way to their fireplace but, right before she was about to disappear, she turned back. "I'll come by first thing tomorrow," Then, she was gone.

Mia raised an eyebrow for a moment before turning to Sirius. "A dowry, hum?"

"How about I simply let you keep my soul and just rent it for daily use?"

He wasn't kidding – Mia knew he wasn't. Though it was impossible for him to remove his own soul and hand it to her, she knew he had already given it to her. And she loved knowing he loved her just that much. "Well," Mia started. "You'd better pay that rent in time because I don't do credit. And I also don't take money, so I suggest you find your own way of payment."

His hand made its way to the back of her neck, pulling her to him and joining their lips. The kiss was passionate, and so hot it almost made her sweat. It would definitely reach their top ten, Mia thought. She even wanted to protest when their lips parted.

"Is this an acceptable way of payment?" he asked playfully.

"Hum, maybe," she said. "I think I need another sample just to be sure."

He grinned and willingly obliged.

---

Hours later, they stood quietly in Platform 9 ¾ waiting for the Hogwarts Express to arrive with Izzy and Harry.

"Wonderful what a pair of sunglasses, a haircut and shaving does to you," Sirius murmured to his fiancé. "Nobody has any idea of who I am."

Mia chuckled. "Well, considering everyone in the train knows Izzy is your daughter, I'm pretty sure it won't take them long to realize who you are when they see her and Harry with us."

He shrugged. "Bloody reporters will be pestering us like flies faced with a rotten fish. I can see the headlines – 'Black spotted with Harry Potter, mysterious woman and child: former fugitive with an instant family?' I think I'll have it framed and pin it on the wall behind our bed," he said sarcastically.

"As long as they don't find out about the wedding and turn it into a bloody circus…" she told him calmly, wrapping one arm lazily around him. "Well, even if they do find out, there's no way they can enter Grimmauld Place without us letting them."

He smiled at her softly and placed a kiss on her forehead, right before hearing the train's horn announcing its approaching. He looked at the clock on the platform's wall, which indicated it was 6 in the afternoon. _Right on time, _he thought.

Mia grasped his hand and gave him a smile as the red engine of the Hogwarts Express made its way into the platform. "Ready?" she asked him.

Sirius sighed, pulling her closer – holding Mia seemed to be the best way for him to remain calm. "Not really. But I doubt it gets any better than this."

The train stopped a few minutes later and Sirius took one step ahead but Mia quickly pulled him back. He gave her a confused look and she removed the sunglasses he was wearing, throwing them into her purse. "You'll want to see her with your own eyes," she told him.

Sirius saw that, a few yards away Harry was the first to exit the train followed by Hermione and then Ron, who seemed to be yelling at a girl who he assumed to be Ginny, his sister.

"… _just wait until I tell Mum that you named my owl 'Pig'!"_ Ron was saying angrily.

"_It's Pigwidgeon. And as if she would mind… It's way better that Dragomir!"_ Ginny countered. _"Only you'd name your owl after the chaser of a Quidditch team whose motto is 'Let's all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best'. Just ridiculous!"_

But, all of a sudden, Sirius stopped hearing them because his daughter had just made her way out of the train after Ginny. Neither she nor Harry had seen him yet and, for a few moments, he just looked at her. He could see bits of Mia all over her even at a distance, starting with the long, vaguely wavy, brown hair, one of his favourite parts of her.

Izzy seemed to look around for a bit before her eyes landed on him and she smiled. She tugged Harry's sleeve to let him know they were there.

Sirius, still hand in hand with Mia, took a few steps in their direction, but it was Izzy that practically made all the way to him and, when she was just a couple of feet away, she froze for a moment and stared. Then, he lowered himself a bit to be face to face with Izzy and, all of sudden she practically launched herself at him in a tight hug.

Sirius didn't say anything at first. He just stood there, holding his daughter… his little girl. The feeling of having her in his arms was unexplainable. Over Izzy's shoulder, he saw Mia slipping silently to Harry's side, one arm resting over their godson's shoulders, and smiling at him.

"Daddy," he heard her saying when she pulled a few inches away, looking at him with teary eyes. Teary gray eyes. Just like his. "You're okay."

He smiled at his daughter. "I am more than okay. When you told me I would find out why you were helping me soon, I never imagined it was because you were my daughter," he stated.

She bit her lower lip. "Are you disappointed?" she inquired.

He shook his head. "Never," he promised. "It's really not every day that you find out that the girl who saved your life is your daughter. You have no idea how proud I felt when you mum told me that."

Izzy smiled. He looked so different now, not like the fugitive she had seen several days ago – he was smiling and he looked a lot more like the pictures she had seen so many times. Plus, she had just officially met her father and he was already proud of her. "You're going to stay, right?"

Sirius chuckled. "I'd like to see anyone who tries to take me away again," he said before standing and caressing her cheek. "I wish I'd been able to be here for you sooner, Izzy."

She shook her head. "Doesn't matter. You're here now, Daddy."

He grinned as he stood up and Mia and Harry approached them. "Hadn't time to say hi to you yet, kid," he told Harry. "And I guess I have to thank you and Hermione for my freedom now. Where is she?"

"Already left with her parents," Harry told him. "They left in a hurry. But you don't need to thank us. We were just setting things the way they were supposed to be, really."

Sirius shook his head. "Say what you want but I still owe you a big deal, Harry."

Suddenly, someone coughed behind Sirius and he turned to see a Molly Weasley, whom he recognized from the photos Mia had shown him from Egypt, there. "Well, hello all. I just wanted to warn you that you might want to take that home. People are starting to crowd around. No doubt the reporters will follow soon."

"Oh," Mia said. She had been way too distracted to see several students and their parents standing nearby whispering and pointing at them. "Thank you for the warning, Molly. We'd better leave before the _Prophet_ sends their squad here."

The redhead shook her head, smiling. "No need to thank me," she said, before turning to Sirius. "It's nice to meet you, Sirius. I'm Molly Weasley."

Sirius nodded. "Ron and Ginny's mother, right?" he inquired, receiving a nod in return. "Listen, Mia mentioned what a help you and your husband were. I wanted to thank you for that."

Once more, Molly shook her head. "Just doing my job as family. We may not actually share blood but Mia and her family will always be part of ours, really."

He smiled at her before turning to Mia. "Well, we'd better go home, then."

She nodded in return. "I'll floo call you tonight," she told Molly before touching Harry's arm and his truck, apparating with him to the front step of 12 Grimmauld Place as Sirius did the same with their daughter. She opened the door and they entered the house, closing it behind them.

"Home sweet home, hum?" Sirius mumbled as he made his way up to the living room with Izzy clinging to his arm like the world was about to end. He smiled, looking down at her when they reached their destination. "I'm really not going anywhere, you know?"

She shrugged, letting go of his arm as they sat on the sofa. "I'm just really happy to have you here, Daddy. I wanted so much to tell you when I saw you in the Common Room that night…"

Sirius smiled to himself and wrapped one arm around her. "When I saw you that night, I knew there was something special about you, Izzy. In a way, it's like part of me, though I hadn't the faintest idea of it, already knew," he told her, one of his hands touching her long hair – it really was just like Mia's. "You look a lot like your Mum, you know?"

She nodded, wrapping her arms around him for a moment as Mia sat on one of the armchairs and Harry on the other. Mia coughed to get Sirius's attention. "May be we should tell them now, Sirius," she suggested.

"Tell us what?" Harry inquired with an eyebrow rose. "Is there something wrong."

"Nah," Sirius stated. "We're just getting married tomorrow."

Izzy's eyes opened wide. Way to drop the bomb. "Tomorrow?! Really?"

Her mother nodded with a smile. "Tomorrow night. It will be a small thing. Don't expect a huge affair. So, what do you two say?"

"I think it's brilliant," Izzy said immediately, smiling widely. "Of course it's brilliant!"

"I'll agree with her as long as I don't need to wear dress robes," Harry told them. "They're itchy."

Mia rolled her eyes. "You won't have to wear them, don't worry," she said.

Sirius coughed. "Do _I _have to?"

She shook her head. "The only thing I care about you doing tomorrow, Sirius, is saying I do. We've waited too long to waste time with uncomfortable attires."

"Well, that's a relief," he said. "I'll stick with the muggle stuff you had brought from our old apartment. There must be something decent in there."

"So you're really getting married tomorrow," Izzy said in wonder. "You're finally getting your happy ending, Mum."

Mia shook her head looking at her daughter, then at Harry and finally landing on Sirius. "This is just the beginning."

**A/N: And they have met... I hope you all liked it. Wedding day next chapter, like you probably realized. Off to the airport now - I'm going to Britain for a week but I'll have internet connection, so no worries for you, I'll still post. Review!**


	19. I Do

The day had started great. Waking up next to Sirius again, having breakfast with him, Harry and Izzy just like a family… It had been great… until Molly Weasley had arrived to 12 Grimmauld Place and dragged Mia from the kitchen saying they needed to start planning the wedding.

"Doing the whole thing in ten hours…" Molly said, shaking her head as she dragged Mia behind her. "It's not impossible but it will take work."

"Molly, I really want a small thing," Mia told her nervously. She was sort of afraid of what Molly had in mind.

The redhead didn't respond and kept dragging her until they reached the house's massive dining room. Then, Molly finally turned to her. "Mia, dear, this day won't happen twice. In a few years when you look back you'll want to remember your wedding as a pretty thing, don't you?" Then, she let go of Mia's arm and circled around the room "I think this room will be perfect, don't you? Maybe we could ask Kreacher to move some of the furniture… and that dinning table really needs to go – it takes a lot of space. Maybe we can transfigure something into smaller tables…"

Mia stood by the door, looking wide-eyed as Molly made plans and, eventually, had Kreacher tagging along with her. She wondered why she was there at all – the redhead seemed to have it all under control. Then, she remembered why – because she needed to make sure Molly wouldn't go overboard.

It was a few minutes later that her mother showed up, standing by her side. "Molly sure does seem to be dedicated to her mission," Lulu murmured.

"She's moving furniture around," Mia gasped. "And conjuring flowers! I don't even recognize my own dining room! How can she do all of this at the same time?!"

"She has seven kids," her mother pointed out. "I'm pretty sure that anyone who was able to give birth to and raise seven kids, can do _anything_."

Mia sighed. "Where's Sirius, anyway? He's getting married too. Shouldn't he be around expressing his opinion about the setting?"

Her mother looked at her in amusement and patted her arm. "Poor thing. So sweet and naïve," Lulu said. "It's time you learn the ugly truth: Men _never_ stick around for the wedding planning. And Sirius must definitely is not an exception."

Mia looked back at her with an eyebrow raised. "You sure know around about men's reaction to wedding planning for someone who's never been married."

Lulu chuckled. "I had several female cousins, Mia. Cousins who thought Lucy would make a wonderful flower girl, then a wonderful bridesmaid. Cousins that always went overboard with the planning and wouldn't stop whining because their fiancés ran from the planning like the devil runs from a cross. I can't count the number of weddings I was bullied into being part of with the fingers of my hands. Of course, that all ended when Lucy got knocked up at sixteen."

"Sorry," Mia said.

"Oh, don't apologize," Lulu told her, grinning. "I almost sang when I found out teenage pregnancy was the perfect remedy for their obsession in making me a bridesmaid. I actually thanked Gabe for it – he thought I had gotten completely mad."

Then came a moment of silence with the mention of Gabriel's name – they rarely spoke of him but Mia knew that, even dead, her birth father meant a big deal to Lulu.

Still silently, they watched Molly Weasley turning the dining room in to what something close to a ballroom. It was pretty, Mia had to admit. And Molly had followed her wishes of keeping it simple. At this point, Mia believed her wedding would be safe in the redhead's hand. "Well, Molly seems to be doing well enough by herself," Mia murmured, finding an excuse to go away. "I guess I could leave for a few minutes to go check if everything is alright with Sirius…"

Lulu raised an eyebrow. "Check if everything is alright, hum?" she asked doubtfully. "Alright, then. Go _check if everything is alright_. People have such a range of words to call it these days…"

"For your information, I'm planning to yell at him a bit for doing a bunk on the wedding planning," she stated.

"Ah, sure you will," her mother mumbled loud enough for Mia to hear.

Mia glared before she turned around and made her way upstairs – she had a feeling that if Sirius was hiding from the wedding planning, he was probably doing it in their room. And she was right.

The first thing she did when she saw him lying on top of the bed covers calmly reading the _Prophet_ was grabbing a pillow from a chair by the door and throwing it to his face. "Chicken," she accused before approaching the bed with her hands on her hips. "You're not afraid of staying on the run from the Dementors for months but when it comes to wedding planning, you hide, hum?"

"I'm not _hiding,_" he told her, forcing an offended tone as he thrown the pillow aside and closed the paper. "I'm just giving you a vote of confidence by letting you decide everything."

"Codswallop," she said, throwing another pillow and glaring at him.

He sighed in defeat. "Fine," he moaned. "I was hiding. But I swear I was just making time before going down there with some excuse to save you too. I know you're not that much of a fan of wedding planning either. Does that leave me off the hook?"

Mia bit her lower lip, trying to look mad but, honestly, she just couldn't be mad at him these days. Thirty years apart had just ruined her capacity of holding a grudge…

"Please?" he begged.

She groaned, taking one step closer to him. "Fine. You're off the hook."

"Great," he told her with a smile, lifting one arm and pulling her down on top of him and kissing her fully on the lips.

Mia only managed to moan before starting kissing him back and barely noticed him flipping them so she was positioned under him. The only broke apart when they needed to gasp for breath.

"You know I'd really, really like to do sinful pre-marital things with my fiancée," Sirius informed her with a grin. "It's probably the last chance we have. Well, in a pre-marital basis, at least."

"Isn't that bad luck in the day of the wedding?" she managed to ask as he placed another kiss on her neck, making her stomach flutter.

"Hum?" he asked, lifting his lips from her skin. "What did you ask?"

"Never mind," she whispered. "Sinful pre-marital things… sounds good."

"Probably not as good as they feel," he promised her and, reaching for his wand, he used it to lock the door. Then, his lips covered hers again.

Deep in her mind, Mia couldn't help wondering how Lulu _always knew_.

---

There was still a bit of daylight outside but it disappeared bit by bit as the time for the wedding also did.

In Grimmauld Place's kitchen, Sirius sat at the long table counting down the minutes for the ceremony. Twenty minutes. It was almost time. He wondered why they couldn't just do it right now – he and Mia were in the same house, both of them almost certainly dressed for the occasion, the guests were there, Dumbledore, who would act as the minister, was also there. What stopped them?

"Shouldn't you be upstairs in the dining room, Daddy?" he heard his daughter's voice asking. He looked up and saw her entering the kitchen wearing a pretty blue dress and a smile on her face. He couldn't help thinking that, right now, with her pale skin and brown hair, Isabelle looked like one of those muggle antique dolls. Always perfect and always innocent.

"I guess," he replied as Izzy sat in front of him. "But it is way too crowded up there. I'm still getting used to being the middle of crowds again…" Not that thirteen individuals were really much of a crowd. "Anyway, I thought I might wait down here until it's time for your mother to come down. Molly won't let me go anywhere near her, she says it is bad luck to see her in her dress before the wedding."

Izzy chuckled. "It's almost time," she pointed out.

Sirius nodded. "Finally," he murmured before looking up at her. "You're still getting used to it, aren't you? To me being here…"

"Kind of," Izzy confessed. "But not in a bad way."

"You're just trying to figure out how this father/daughter thing works, hum?" he asked her, receiving a nod in return. "That makes two of us."

Izzy smiled. "I think it won't take us that long to figure it out," she said calmly. "You've been my dad all my life – even if you weren't here, Mum made sure Harry and I always knew you. You were my dad in a long-distance and contactless sort of way. Now, we only have to make it short distance and with contact."

He couldn't help laughing at what she said. "That's a way of seeing it," he stated lightly. "A nice one."

She nodded softly. "She smiles now," his daughter murmured.

"Hum?" he asked in confusion.

"Mum," she clarified. "She smiles now that you're back."

Sirius looked back at her with a blank expression. He had thought of it. Wondered how it might have been Mia's side of their separation. Hearing Izzy say that gave him a faint idea. "She didn't smile before?"

"She did," Izzy stated in a low voice. "Mum tried to do it for me and Harry. But she rarely meant it when she smiled. And when she did mean it, it was like there was still something missing. _You _were missing. I've seen her smile and mean it more since yesterday than in the rest of my whole life. You make her very happy, Daddy."

He grinned. "She makes me very happy too," he said with a sigh. "Merlin, I can't believe I'm sitting willingly in the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld Place and currently talking to my daughter a few minutes before I'm getting married to Mia."

Izzy chuckled before taking a look at the clock on the wall. "Eight minutes," Izzy told her father. "You should go upstairs, Daddy. I'll get Mum down for you."

"Right," he said as he got up. "Do me a favour and tell her I love her, will you, Izzy?"

"I will." Then, she turned around and made her way upstairs, leaving a smiling Sirius behind.

Things were just the way they were supposed to be.

---

Mia tried to convince herself she wasn't nervous. Why would she be? She hadn't been nervous earlier. She was marrying Sirius in just a few minutes. She had waited _years_ for it. So what possible reason could she have to be nervous now? Maybe because of the fact that it was one of the most important days of her life. Or maybe because Molly had spent the whole day fussing over her… _No, _Mia told herself. _You're not nervous, _she told herself one more time.

Still, it was odd – really odd – to think she was getting married to Sirius in just a few minutes. It was sort of like a dream – she couldn't help feeling like that frequently ever since Sirius had been set free. Mia took a deep breath and looked herself in the mirror, smiling.

She had Lulu to thank for the dress. The silky pearl fabric was long and fluid but, mostly, very simple. Perfect. And, more importantly, it had a past. The last thing she had ever imagined was that her mother – her very practical and free-spirited mother – would have such a piece of clothing in her wardrobe. That was probably because the dress wasn't Lulu's but, in fact, her mother's – Mia's grandmother.

"_She wore it when she __married your grandfather,_" Lulu had explained when she had surprised her by giving it to her. _"She gave it to me not long before she died probably hoping I'd get to wear it eventually, which, as you probably know, I never did. But I guess she would be happy knowing you'd wear it instead."_

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the room's lock clicking and someone opening it. Izzy peaked her head in. "Are you ready, Mum?"

Mia nodded, smiling at her. "Is your Dad down there?"

"Yes," Izzy replied as she opened the door further. "Molly has been keeping him from coming in here to see you."

"Thanks," she said, smiling to herself. "Well, let's not keep your dad waiting any longer, shall we?"

Her daughter nodded. "Oh, he asked me to tell you that he loved you."

Mia smiled to herself, taking Izzy's hand and they made their way downstairs to the ground floor and the dining room, where everything was already set up.

She felt Izzy's hand leaving hers when they reached the doorway and, from that point on, everything was sort of a blur. All she could see from the moment she stepped into the room was Sirius as if there was nobody else in the room, and, slowly, every bit of nerves she had been feeling before turned into nothing.

His smile was directed to Mia as she took slow steps to him and she smiled back. His hand stretched to hers when she reached him and she took it willingly.

Dumbledore started the ceremony but Mia barely heard anything he said - she knew it all by heart and the _yes's_ and _I do's_ came out instinctively. She really wanted to tell the headmaster to hurry up and just say the words 'I declare you husband and wife'.

But he kept talking and, while he did it, she only stared at the pool of grey that were Sirius's eyes. Her heart beat for the words after a wait of more than a decade – she wanted to be bound to those eyes, to all of him.

Her hands clung to Sirius's as she looked at him and she gripped them further when, she finally heard the last part.

"Because Sirius and Amelia have desired each other in marriage, and have witnessed this before our gathering, affirming their acceptance of the responsibilities of such a union, and have pledged their love and faith to each other, sealing their vows in the giving and receiving of rings, I do proclaim that they are husband and wife in the sight of the wizarding world. Let all people here and everywhere recognize and respect this union, now and forever," Dumbledore said right before turning to Sirius. "Fell free to kiss the bride."

His hands finally left hers and, with a sigh, he touched her face in a soft caress and brought her closer, joining their lips. Their first kiss as a married couple felt just like any other, still, different at the same time. It was so hard to define it – Mia concluded that maybe she would be able to do it after a while. They were sealing it – from that moment on he was hers and she was his. Now, officially.

They broke apart after what seemed years and Mia looked him in the eyes. "It's done," she whispered. "We're finally married."

Sirius gave her the brightest smile she had ever seen on his face. "I think we finally are, Mrs. Black." And they kissed one more time, ignoring the 'ew' sounds Fred and George were making in the background before being hit on the back of their heads by their weepy mother.

---

"You're falling behind, Moony," Sirius told his old friend as they sat at one of the tables arranged by Molly for the small reception, which was now reaching an end by now.

Remus looked back at him with an eyebrow rose. "Falling behind how, exactly?"

"On committing yourself to a female, obviously," he said with a grin. "You'd better work on fix it. Only unmarried Marauder, Remus." He was saying that, however considering the rat, in Sirius's book, was more than disowned from their group. "There may only be two of us these days but you're still falling behind."

"Not everyone is destined to commitment like you are, Padfoot," Remus let him know. "Still, if twenty years ago someone told me I'd be attending your wedding in the future, I doubt I would have believed it, considering you snogged a different girl almost every week."

Sirius groaned. "My fourteen-year-old self's randy actions don't have a thing to do with the fact that you, my friend, should really get a woman. Women are nice, you know? They're soft and feminine. Mostly pretty. And they put you in such a better mood. I bet there are a lot of women in the world looking for a bloke with a… wild side like yours."

The former professor rolled his eyes. "You mean a wild side that could rip them to pieces? I doubt it, Sirius. What I need to find now is a job, not a woman."

He shook his head. "All work and no fun make Moony and very frustrated guy," Sirius told him before looking with a smile at Mia's approaching form. "Speaking of pretty women, here comes the prettiest." He lifted his arm, reaching for Mia's when she was close enough to him and pulling her to his lap in a swift move. "Wife," he said.

"Husband," she responded with a smile. "People are starting to leave – we should go tell them goodbye."

"In a minute," he promised. "I was here talking to Remus about him needing to get a woman. Don't you think I'm right?"

Remus groaned while Mia shook her head. "Remus is a big boy. I trust he can handle his own romantic life."

"Thank you," Remus said, sending Sirius a glare.

"But," Mia continued. "The fact is that he doesn't have a romantic life in the first place and that's just not healthy. You deserve to find someone to love, Remus. With or without your problem. Everyone does and you're not an exception."

Shaking his head, the former professor got up. "You married people are all the same: can't stop trying to spread around the wanders of being a couple… Lily and James did the exact same thing back then."

Sirius grinned. "Just filling the job, Moony."

"Right," he murmured. "And I guess it is time for me to go home now. It was a nice ceremony. I don't need to tell you that I'm happy for you two."

Mia got up, bringing Sirius with her, and gave Remus a friendly hug. "Don't be a stranger. Make sure you show up here from time to time or I'll have to send the man after you."

Remus gave her a smile when he pulled away. "I'll do what I can," he promised before saying goodbye to Sirius too and leaving.

For the following ten minutes, the few guests made their way out of Grimmauld Place, congratulating Sirius and Mia and giving them their best wishes. To their surprise, however, together with the Weasleys, Harry and Izzy joined the line for the goodbyes carrying what seemed to be overnight bags.

"What are the bags for?" Mia asked them with an eyebrow raised at her children. "Are you going somewhere?

"Actually, we are," Izzy pointed out. "Molly invited us for a sleepover at the Burrow tonight. We said yes."

"We guessed you'd want to be alone for tonight," Harry added. "As you're not getting a honeymoon…"

"So don't expect us back until tomorrow night," Izzy finished.

"Well, it seems like you have the whole thing worked," Sirius told them, surprised they had thought of that.

With a sigh, Mia leaned down to kiss them both on the cheek. "You two behave, alright?"

"We always do," Harry told her with a grin before hugging Sirius goodbye and joining Ron near his family.

Izzy smiled up at Sirius and pulled his down to give him a kiss on the cheek. "'Night, Daddy."

"'Night, Izzy," he replied. "Have fun."

His daughter gave him one last wave before disappearing through the kitchen's fireplace minutes later and, just like that, the newlywed couple was left alone in the house.

"So… wedding night," Mia mumbled, turning to Sirius.

Grinning he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to what Mia assumed would be a kiss but, without a warning, he scooped her up from the floor to his arms.

"What…?" Mia asked in surprise, looking at him wide-eyed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

He looked at her innocently. "I am carrying you up to our room, Mrs. Black, considering we're already inside the house."

"No, you're not!" she said, trying to escape from his arms unsuccessfully. "Put me down. You shouldn't be carrying anyone right now… Our room is _four floors up_!"

"If I was good enough to shag you senseless today, yesterday and the day before, I most certainly am capable of carrying you to our room and shag you again," he told her as he made his way to the stairs and climbed them still holding her. "Plus, carrying you makes me feel manly."

She sighed and, knowing there was no use insisting, she wrapped her arms around his neck and enjoyed the ride. "You're infuriating. Blame me for caring."

"Actually, I love you for caring," he told her, still climbing the stairs. "But, for now, all I want to do is to go to our room and make sure you wear nothing more than that wedding ring. I imagine you'll look damn beautiful like that, Mrs. Black."

Mia smiled and kissed his cheek. "Let us consummate this marriage, then," she whispered in his hear.

She could swear he hurried his pace when she said that and, sooner than she imagined possible, he was opening their bedroom's door, carrying her to the bed and laying her in it

"I like this," she murmured, looking up at him. "I really like this."

"Hum, what are you talking about, pretty wife?" he asked her with a smile.

"Being married to you," she explained, lifting her arms and pulling his own so he would lie on top of her. "I really, really like it."

He leaned down and pressed a kiss on the top of her head. "I can't say I disagree."

**A/N: A ridiculously large chapter - for me, at least, 8 pages is a wonder... Anyway, I tried to make it easy on the formalities and more inclined to the emotions. Hope you liked it. Take pity because I'm in Britain and my father won't let us leave the house because he's affraid of the swine flu, therefore, not a very eventful week. Leave a little feedback and me a happier person. Review!**


	20. Discovery

August had arrived a few days ago and, little more than a month after getting married to Mia, Sirius felt comfortable enough to admit that he had never felt that happy in his life – not even in his teenage years.

It was knowing the little things that made him feel more and more part of the family: he knew Izzy hated oatmeal because when she was little Harry had told her it was made of animals' brains; he knew, from checking on the kids at night, that there wasn't a day when his daughter didn't kick her bedcovers to the floor while she slept while, in the other hand, Harry barely ever moved; he knew Mia still liked to get up before ten or she would feel like she was wasting the day… unless they were doing something other than sleeping in bed; he knew she had spent the last month trying to convince Lulu to replace her as the History of Magic teacher in Hogwarts because she cared about her students and didn't want them to be taught by Binns again; finally, he also knew that Mia's stomach still couldn't hold seafood considering she was, for the third day in a row, puking her guts out in their bathroom after dinner a few days ago in some fancy restaurant near Piccadilly Circus.

"Is Mum alright?" Izzy asked her father when she joined him down in the kitchen. "I heard her…" she made a face. "Again."

"Her stomach didn't take dinner the other day too well, apparently," he told Izzy as got up from the table after finishing his breakfast. "I'll take her some tea or something later… So, you're leaving to the Burrow now?"

Harry nodded. "There's no problem, is there? We can stay if you need us here because of Aunt Mia…"

Sirius waved it off. "Nah, I'll take care of her. Don't worry. You two go and have fun. Raise some hell for me."

"We're just going to spend the day at the pond. How much can hell we possibly raise there?" Izzy asked him.

"Leave it to the twins to find out," he said with a laugh. From what he had seen in the past weeks, Fred and George Weasley could give him and James a run for their money.

Izzy and Harry were gone less than a minute later, leaving him alone in the kitchen. Maybe he'd do a bit of tea for Mia now… Still, before he could reach the stove to start boiling the water, he heard the familiar crack that announced Kreacher's arrival.

"Package for you, Master," the house-elf announced in a low voice. "Kreacher went checking on Mistress's house in Wales and find package there. Addressed to Master."

Sirius turned around with an eyebrow raised and approached Kreacher, who was still holding the package. He reached for the package, wondering who would be sending stuff to him for the old Davis house. "Thanks," he said, making an effort to be nice to the house-elf like Mia had asked and, looking a bit nervous – Kreacher seemed not to be sure of how to deal with Sirius trying to be nice to him yet – the house-elf approached the stove and continued making the tea even without Sirius telling him to do that.

Looking at the returning address on the package, Sirius groaned – it was from the ministry. It made sense they had sent it to the Davis house – he and Mia had never bothered letting them know they didn't live there… Taking the package with him, he made his way up the stairs until he reached the third floor and entered his and Mia's room.

"Mia, the ministry sent me some sort of package," he announced, closing the door behind him. "Do you want to see what it is?"

His wife opened the door of the adjoined bathroom and looked out, her face awfully pale and her hair loosely tied behind her back. "I don't think it's very safe for me to leave the loo yet," she moaned. "Bloody lobster… You open it and tell me what it is." Then, she closed the door with a bang and went back to throwing up.

Sirius ripped the brown paper that covered the cardboard box and threw it away, opening the box to see what was inside. "Oh, the bloody bastard!" he shouted.

"_What is it?"_ he heard his wife's voice from inside the loo.

"A bribe!" he shouted back. "A damn good bribe!" First, Fudge had attempted to give him the award. Then, he had tried to give him money. Just two weeks ago, he had sent a message through the Dumbledore that the ministry was planning some sort of tribute ceremony to him, which Sirius had immediately shut down. But now the he had done it…

Mia opened the door again but didn't look out. _"What is it?" _she asked faintly.

"Tickets," Sirius told her, looking at them. There about a dozen of them. "To the Quidditch World Cup. Merlin, they've been sold out for months!" He'd spend the past month trying to get a few of those…

"_Oh, the bloody bastard,"_ he heard Mia say, sarcasm all over her voice. _"He ought to be beheaded for that."_

"He really should!" Sirius replied defensively. "Bloody idiot had to send such a good bribe. Now I have to accept. It's the damn World Cup! And they're for the top box – I've always wanted to see a game from the top box." He couldn't have the pleasure of telling him to shove the tickets up his arse. That would be a damn waste.

"_Then go,"_ she told him before flushing the toilet, opening the door further and finally leaving the bathroom. "Merlin, you've more than deserved the damn bribe," Mia told him as she reached the bed and lied in there.

Sirius let go of the tickets, placing them on the bedside table and circled the bed to cover Mia with the blankets. He placed a kiss on her brow before sitting on the edge of the bed by her curled form. She was almost as white as the sheets on the bed. "You alright?" he asked her.

She groaned. "Not really," Mia told him with her eyes closed. "I'm so tired. I hate being sick."

"Who doesn't?" he asked. "You need to drink something or you'll dehydrate, Mia. Kreacher will bring up some tea."

She nodded and opened one eye. "Are the kids still here?"

He shook his head as he caressed her cheek with his hand. "They've already left to the Burrow," he said before sighing. "What am I gonna do with a dozen tickets?"

"Share 'em with the Weasleys," she said faintly. "There are plenty of them. You can give them eight for Arthur and all the kids – Molly likes Quidditch just as much as I do – then you keep three for you and the kids and give the other one to someone else because the last thing I want to do is get myself in there."

"You used to go to all my games. And Harry's too," he pointed out.

"Well, you were a nice view in your games," she let him know. "And Harry's my kid. You two were exceptions. Give the ticket to Hermione Granger. The kids might like to have her around."

"Killjoy," he moaned.

There was a knock on the door and, to Sirius surprise, it wasn't Kreacher bringing the tea – it was Lulu.

"Shoo," she told Sirius before he said anything to her. "I need to talk to my kid."

"You can't shoo me from my own room," Sirius told his mother-in-law indignantly.

"Of course I can," she replied. "Now get lost. I really need to talk to her alone."

He huffed, and placed a kiss on Mia's cheek before getting up and making his way to the door. "And you say you're not one of those nightmares of mothers-in-law," he told Lulu before leaving.

Lulu occupied the spot Sirius had been sitting on. "So, Izzy mentioned yesterday that you've been ill."

"Stomach flu," she murmured, her face buried in the pillow. "A bad one."

"Hum, so you've been… projectile, hum? And tired as hell," Lulu inquired.

"Yeah," Mia told her, looking up.

Her mother coughed and set straighter. "You know, I had a very similar stomach bug to yours a little less than 35 years ago," her mother pointed out. "I went away around seven months later but I did get really fat in the meanwhile."

"Lulu, I'm really not up to enigmas right now," she said. "I just want to sleep."

"What I'm saying is that you haven't been married for two months yet and you've already gotten yourself knocked up."

Mia lifted her head from the pillow and raised an eyebrow at Lulu. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm on the potion since the wedding! And we use the spell too."

"You know that stuff fails sometimes," Lulu said.

"Sure it does. The potion fails in what? One percent of the cases?" she replied. "I believe I'm the one with the Healer's degree in the room, Lu."

"Alright, so let's assume the potion didn't fail… You've only started taking it after the wedding. What about before it? Did you use the spell _every time_?" her mother inquired. "And renew it every three hours because that's just how long it lasts?"

"Of course we… hum," she stopped talking suddenly and her mind went back to the first time she and Sirius had made love after their reunion. They had rolled on the sheets until early hours of the morning. And now she couldn't remember using the spell more than once. "Oh, Merlin."

Lulu shook her head and reached for her bag, taking out a little vial with a silvery liquid. "I brought a test just but you'll need to go to the hospital and see an obstetrical healer to be completely sure. You know these things can make mistakes." She put the vial in her daughter's hand. "Bottoms up."

Mia gulped, sitting up straight on the bed and uncovered the little vial before drinking the liquid for the second time on her life. In the moment she felt its taste, she immediately dropped the vial and covered her mouth with her hand. "I think I'm gonna be sick," she said.

"Too sweet?" Lulu asked. Mia nodded and climbed out of bed running to the bathroom again while her mother smiled to herself. She was _always _right.

---

**Two hours later**

Sirius couldn't stop pacing. Why on earth had his wife left the house in the pitiful condition she was in? Especially, why the hell had she left the house without him – flooed from their room's fireplace before telling him anything. Lulu had said Mia had needed to 'run an unexpected errand'. That had better be one hell of an urgent thing…

He heard footsteps up the stairs that were too heavy to be Kreacher's and immediately knew Mia was back home. He left the living room, where he had been waiting and made his way into the hallway, where he found her standing at the top of the stairs.

"You'd better have a very good excuse for leaving the house by yourself, considering you're sick."

Mia didn't respond, sighing instead and approached him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "'m not sick," she murmured against his chest. "Right now I'm just really tired. I walked all the way from St. Mungo's." She had needed that twenty minute walk to think.

"Wait, that's where you went? To St. Mungo's?" he asked her, pulling away for a moment. "Merlin, Mia, you could have told me to go with you."

She shook her head. "I needed to do this alone. There's no need for you to freak out – I'm alright. I'm … Why don't we go up to our room and we'll talk there?" she suggested – she really didn't feel like breaking the news to him in the middle of the hallway.

"Okay," he said, putting one arm around her before he walked her up the stairs. Part of him was still angry but he just couldn't yell at her seeing her like that.

They entered their room together and Sirius closed the door behind him, before sitting next to her on the bed, waiting for her to talk. Even though she had told him she was fine, he couldn't help feeling awfully nervous…

She took a deep breath before saying the words. "I'm pregnant," she announced. Mia saw his face slowly shift to an expression of complete shock. "I know we've just gotten married, therefore were supposed to have this honeymoon period and, hell, between the puking and the swollen ankles I can see we won't have much of it. But I am really happy, Sirius. I just wanted to make sure you're okay with this too. We didn't plan this but…"

He listened to her almost pleading rambling, his heart thumping so hard he could barely breathe. Merlin, was he okay with this? Was she actually asking him if he was okay with this? Tongue-tied, Sirius simply cupped her face and kissed her mouth. She moaned against his lips in surprise, but started kissing him back seconds later, placing a hand on his side and the other on his right shoulder.

Her face was flushed when she looked back at him when they broke apart. "Sirius?" Mia asked in a low voice, waiting for him to say something.

"Screw the honeymoon period," he told her with a serious look. "We're having a baby. I will _always _love any baby you give me, you know that."

She sighed in relief. "Oh, thank Merlin."

"I asked you for seven, didn't I?" he said, shooting her a grin.

Mia chuckled. "I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you," she warned him.

Sirius just smiled in return. "We'll see," he told his wife, pushing her against the pillows and lifting her shirt to kiss her still flat stomach. "Our baby is really in here?" he asked, looking up at her.

Mia nodded. "I hope so…" she told him with a laugh. His facial expression seemed like the one of a little boy in Christmas morning. "You're really happy, aren't you?"

"Are you kidding me? Happy doesn't cut it, Mia. We're having another baby! That makes me the happiest bloke in the bloody universe," he stated, sitting up. "So, did you get checked up? Is everything alright? How far along are you?"

"Hey, one question at a time," Mia warned him with a smile. "Yes, I got checked up. Everything is alright. I'm a little over seven weeks along and I'm supposed to go back for another check up in a six."

Sirius grinned. "I'll go with you," he declared. "Are you sure it's seven weeks? I've only been back for six."

"They start counting from my last period. The baby was probably conceived a week or two after it," Mia explained.

He sighed, his hand resting on her stomach as he looked at it puzzled. "Merlin, how small do you reckon the kid is?"

"The size of a small grape, I think," she told him with a smile. "Poor thing, hum?"

"We'll protect it," Sirius told her, placing another kiss on her stomach. "It makes you look beautiful, you know? This pregnancy thing."

Mia rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly. You can't even tell I'm pregnant yet, Sirius."

He shrugged. "Hey, I say it makes you look beautiful. Just take my word, would you? But what about the sickness? Are you feeling alright now?"

She nodded. "The healer gave me a potion to make it better. Merlin, I barely even had it when I was having Izzy. She was such a quiet baby. I guess I got spoiled."

Sirius shifted on the bed, lying next to her. "Oh, you'll be spoiled, Mia. Believe me, you will."

Mia smiled. "Well, then you can start by going downstairs and grabbing me some lunch. The mummy and the baby are starving."

---

It was already dark outside when Harry and Izzy flooed back to Grimmauld Place's kitchen. By the sink, Kreacher was using his magic to make the dishes wash themselves and turned to them when he heard them arriving.

"Young Masters," he said. "Mistress and Master are in Living Room. They asks for young masters to join them because they has something to say."

"Thank you, Kreacher," Izzy said, wondering what that was all about, and turned to Harry. "Did we do something wrong?"

Harry shrugged. "Not that I remember. But I guess we have to go up there to find out."

They proceeded to climbed up the stairs to the ground floor and then to the first floor. Before going into the room, Izzy peaked through the small opening of the door and saw her mother lying on the couch with her legs resting on her father's lap and covered with a thin blanket. She looked alright – unlike she had in the morning – as she laughed at something her father had said.

"That's just ridiculous," Sirius was saying in a revolted tone as he looked at the film they were watching on the muggle TV. "Why is the witch always responsible for everything bad that happens?! And why does she always look hideous? You know, I like muggles but I actually find this offensive. I can tell for sure that real witches are a lot prettier than _that_."

Mia chuckled. "Muggles don't know that we actually exist, Sirius. They picture magic people in a lot of ways. And thank you for the compliment about witches being pretty."

"You're welcome," he replied, rubbing her outstretched legs.

Izzy grinned as Harry knocked on the door and the two adults turned to see them standing by the doorway.

"Hey, how was your day?" Mia asked with a smile, turning off the TV using the remote as they came in and sat on the armchairs by the couch.

"It was great," Izzy told her. "We went to the pond."

Harry snorted. "Yeah, and the twins stole Ron's swimming trunks."

"He couldn't get out of water until Molly came to check on us and saw George climbing a tree to hoist them like a flag," Izzy added. "Merlin, she _can _yell."

Sirius instantly burst in laughter. "Now, that is something I'd like to have seen."

"Or rather something you'd like to have taken part in," Mia pointed out, shaking her head.

"Honey, we both know that if I didn't I wouldn't be me," he replied with a grin.

She sighed, still shaking her head but now with her lips curling slightly.

"Are you okay now, Aunt Mia?" Harry asked his godmother. "You didn't sound so good this morning…"

Mia smiled softly. "I feel a lot better now, don't worry. Did Kreacher mentioned we wanted to tell you something?"

Her daughter nodded in response. "What is it?"

"We're not in trouble, are we?" Harry asked

"Why, should you?" Mia inquired.

"Hum…" he considered having the Marauder's map and the cloak, which he had used several times last years to sneak out of the castle with Hermione and Ron. But she couldn't know that, could she? "No," he said. "Not at all."

Mia gave him a dubious look but decided to let it go, considering the circumstances. She looked at Sirius and took a deep breath. "I… hum… we. Er… well, how would to like to share the house with an extra person?"

"An extra person?" Izzy asked in confusion. "Why? Is Lulu moving back in?"

Sirius laughed and shook his head. "Nah, that's not it. You mother means a small person," he said with a chuckle. "Won't occupy that much space for now, anyway."

"Sirius!" Mia said, elbowing him. "What we are trying to say is that I… hum, we are having a baby."

"A baby?" Izzy asked, looking at them with wide eyes.

"Yes," she confirmed. "I'm pregnant."

Neither Izzy nor Harry spoke for almost a minute, staring at Mia instead. She barely breathed the whole time, waiting for them to say something. Was the silence a good thing? She wasn't that good with psychology. Facing the fact that they wouldn't be the ones to talk first, she coughed. "So, how do you feel about having a little brother or a little sister?"

"Already?" Izzy asked in disbelief.

She was a little taken aback by her daughter's reaction. "Well, yes. Is… is that a problem?"

Izzy shook her head. "It's kind of unexpected… Thought you were going to wait a bit longer. You're not going to start drooling all over the baby and forget about me and Harry, right?"

"Of course we will," Sirius told her jokingly. "We've already transferred you two to a school somewhere in Asia. You're leaving next week. We'll send pictures of the little family usurper when he or she is born."

He saw his daughter's eyes opening wide and couldn't help pushing it a bit more

"Oh, sweetie, don't worry," he went on. "I'm sure we'll eventually run into each other in some uncomfortable family function and share meaningless words. That probably won't happen until you two are off age, though."

"Daddy! It's not funny!" Izzy told him in frustration.

He grinned widely at her. "You know I'm kidding, Izzybel," Sirius said, using his newfound nickname for her, which, despite her best efforts not to drop the pout, made his daughter smile too. "You'll always be my little girl with all perks and disadvantages that come attached to it." Then, he turned to Harry. "The same goes to you… except for the 'girl' part."

"Thanks," Harry replied with a laugh.

"Besides," Sirius added. "I wouldn't be able to take your poor unborn sibling to the Quidditch World Cup, would I?"

Harry's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Wait. We're going?! To the World Cup?!"

"But the tickets were sold out everywhere!" Izzy said.

"Let's just say the minister finally sent me a decent offer. We're going and so are the Weasleys."

From her spot, Mia coughed again to get their attention. "Wait a minute before switch conversations. You still haven't told me what you think of the baby. Are you okay with it?"

"Are you kidding? I'm going to be a big sister! Wouldn't miss it for the world," Izzy told her mother happily.

Harry nodded in agreement. "Yeah. But I think I speak for both of us when I say don't expect us to change nappies."

**A/N: Sorry for the delay... I'm back home now but I'll be leaving again tomorrow, this time to the sounth. I'll still have internet there, now worries - I have one of those wonderful mobile net things. Hope you liked it. Next chapter a character that's been missing for a while will show up again... dare you to guess who. Review!**


	21. World Cup pt 1

(Ah, sorry for the double posting - I was trying to make a few corrections on the chapter but ended up replacing it with another from Finding Our Way, then, my net crashed and, before someone saw the wrong chapter, I just deleted it. But it's up again. Sorry.)

**August 28****th**** 1994**

Elizabeth Harper stepped foot in Britain for the first time in five years for the Quidditch World Cup. In fact, the World cup was just the beginning of it, considering all her possessions were being moved back there from Australia, where she had lived for the years. The decision to come back had been quite easy – it wasn't every day that a thirty-four year-old healer was offered the position of head of a department – in her case, the Obstetrical department – in St. Mungo's. Therefore, she had promptly accepted the opportunity: the hours were flexible, which would allow her to spend more time with her children and the pay was significantly large.

When she made her way to the campsite near the Quidditch stadium with the children, Elizabeth could swear she had never seen that many people in the same place. People of all colours, ages and nations walked through the thin makeshift roads in between the tents wearing all sorts of muggle outfits, most of which were undeniably hideous. Faced with the mob, she promptly picked up her three-year-old son from the floor and grabbed her eight-year-old daughter's hand.

"Evie, don't let go of my hand, alright?" she warned the little blonde girl. "Not until we reach the tent."

"'Kay, Mommy," Evie replied with an innocent smile.

"Daddy there?" her little son, Harper, asked.

"Yes, honey, he is," she replied as they made their way to the ministry's tent. It didn't seem any bigger or fancier than the others and if it wasn't for the fact that it had a large sign saying 'MM' stamped on the front, Elizabeth wouldn't have been able to recognize it.

The wizard standing outside it stood straight guarding the entrance and wore a black muggle tux, sort of reminding Elizabeth of a butler. "Name," he asked in a nasal voice, unrolling a long list of names.

"Elizabeth Harper," she told him. "We're with Ludo Bagman."

"Oh, of course," the man said, stepping away from the door. "Mr. Bagman's wife, isn't it?"

"Not anymore," she said dismissively.

The wizard was taken aback by her tone but quickly recovered. "Please, go in, Ms. Harper."

Elizabeth took a deep breath and made her way into tent. It was ridiculously large in the inside, sort of like a miniature of the Ministry's headquarters. There were aurors all over the place, wizards and witches from almost every department of the ministry and a bunch of foreign guests.

"…_and keep those Veela entertained or else they'll start looking around for someone to entertain them, if you know what I mean,_" Elizabeth heard a familiar voice say. She looked around for the source of the voice only to find her ex-husband standing a few feet away talking to a scrawny dark-haired boy that seemed to be straight out of Hogwarts.

Seeing her father, Evie let go of her mother's hand and ran to him. "Daddy!" she squealed happily as Elizabeth placed little Harper on the floor, who didn't take a long time to follow his sister.

Ludo kneeled to the floor and, in a swift move, lifted the two children to his arms, causing Elizabeth to raise an eyebrow.

"Evie, honey, I think you've grown a foot since I last saw you," Ludo told hid daughter.

"No, I didn't, Daddy," she replied with a giggle. "But I lost a tooth! See?"

"Oh, did you?" he asked with a smile before turning to his son. "What about you, little man?"

"Gwanpa took me to the zoo!" he told his father.

Elizabeth observed the interaction with a small smile. Ludo might be an arse who couldn't control himself whenever faced with a wager but she certainly couldn't accuse him of being a bad father. After a little conversation during which the kids filled him in ever event in their lived since they had last seen him, Ludo placed the two on the floor and approached Elizabeth.

"Glad you made it to the game, Lizzie," he told her with a grin.

"It's not every day I get free tickets to the Quidditch World Cup," she replied in an even tone.

He shrugged. "I had a few spare in the department. Thought you might like watching a game like the old times."

She pursed her lips. "Like the old times, hum? Then how many bets, so far?"

"Elizabeth…"

She shook her head. "Never mind, I don't want to know," Elizabeth murmured, looking at the children.

Ludo coughed, trying to change the subject. "So, I got your seats at the top box but you can't go up for another two hours – they only let us in a few minutes before the game."

"Top box, hum?" she mumbled. "Fancy."

"Yes. I hope you don't mind sharing it," he said. "A bunch of foreign ministers will be here, the minister, Crouch, the Weasleys, Black…"

Elizabeth froze immediately. Black?! _No, no way! _"Wait, Black?! As in Sirius Black?! Wasn't the bloody bastard rotting in Azkaban?"

Ludo raised an eyebrow. "You're a little behind the news, aren't you, Lizzie?"

"What do you mean behind the news?" she inquired in an edgy tone.

"Well, he escaped last year," Ludo started. "And, turns out, it was bloke who was always with him, Lupin and Potter, was the one who did the massacre and sold the Potters to You-Know-Who. What was his name? Something Peterson?"

"Peter Pettigrew?" Elizabeth asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, yeah, that's him," he confirmed. "The guy was an Animagus – a rat – and faked his own death. Black, the poor bloke, was in jail for more than a decade and he was innocent, after all. It was all over the papers when he got his pardon in June. Fudge had us sending a dozen tickets to him to 'make it up to him'. A crappy bargain if you asked me…"

She had stopped listening after he had said Sirius was innocent. For a moment, Elizabeth felt stupid for not reading more than the front page and the sports section in her father's newspapers. Apparently, Sirius's case hadn't reached the headlines back in Australia. She could barely believe that Peter, the boy she had tutored thousands of times in Hogwarts, was the traitor. To tell the truth, she had been surprised when she had heard Sirius was the responsible too. He and James were like brothers. She gulped. "And he… Sirius. He's coming to the game?"

Ludo nodded. "Yeah. With the Weasleys and a friend, Harry Potter and his daughter," he told her. "I was going to get Arthur Weasley a few tickets but as he had already gotten things planned with Black…"

"Wait," Elizabeth told him. "Rewind a bit. His _daughter_?"

"Oh, right, I didn't tell you," he said, scratching his scalp. "A week after he got his pardon, he got married. And his wife, that friend of yours, Mia, well, turns out, she was pregnant when he got arrested. They have a kid in Hogwarts and Harry Potter is their ward because they are his godparents. She's raised him ever since the Potters were killed."

"Oh, Merlin's left testicle," she mumbled to herself. Unbelievable. Bloody unbelievable. The things she had missed… Harry, a daughter… Oh, that was just too much to process at the same time. And Mia? She hadn't had news from her in years. "Is Mia coming too?"

"Dunno. Weasley didn't mention her coming. She wasn't much of a Quidditch fan, was she?"

Elizabeth shook her head. It was really too much information at the same time. _But I was the wrong one this time, _Elizabeth reminded herself. For the past thirteen years, in her mind Sirius Black's face had been wrongly associated with the loss of one of her best friends. She had hated his guts, wished him dead, cursed him all the way to hell in Lily and James's funeral. And in the end it had been Peter. She couldn't believe that that little bloke, who, she had to admit, was not nearly as smart as a rock, had been betraying them the whole time. She… she had consoled his mother. Praised him in his 'funeral'. She felt… dirty.

"I… hum… watch the kids for a while, would you? I think I need some air," she said before turning around and leaving the tent.

---

"That one didn't take Muggle Studies at school, for sure," Sirius mumbled as he and Izzy looked a bit puzzled at a wizard who seemed to be wearing a female muggle dress. With Harry gone with Ron and Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys stuck talking to some boring acquaintance of theirs, Sirius had decided it might be a nice idea to take Izzy for a walk and have some quality father/daughter time in the short quart of hour before they were supposed to report to the top box.

"Fourth guy in a dress since we left the tent," Izzy pointed out with a chuckle.

"I counted five," Sirius said. "There was the large bloke wearing a frilly yellow skirt and an electric blue shirt."

"Wasn't that a woman?" Izzy inquired with an eyebrow rose.

"An awfully manly woman, then," her father replied grimly. "Merlin, those muggles who own the campsite must think this is a nutter's convention."

Izzy looked around and winced – people waving their wands and discussing about Quidditch, little kids flying on toy brooms… "I don't think they'll have to worry about it with the memory charms they're about to get."

"You've got a point there," he said before giving her a grin. "Smart kid you are. Took after your Mum."

"She always says I take after you," she pointed out. "Speaking of which, you're not still worrying about her staying at home while we're here, are you? She asked me to make sure you didn't let it ruin the game for you…"

Sirius groaned. "I'm fine," he said. He had to admit he had been a bit uneasy about leaving Mia at home even if Lulu had promised to stay there for the night.

Even a few hours earlier when he had left home with Harry, Izzy and Hermione – who had been left at Grimmauld Place by her parents in the previous day – his wife had threatened him with bodily harm in case he used his two-way mirror, which had eventually been snatched by Izzy, to check on her every hour. Merlin, he was entitled to worry a bit – that pregnancy thing was a first for him… But, well, he had turned out not to be as nervous as he had imagined – the whole sports event setting was a nice distraction. "You can let your mother know that I plan to enjoy this World Cup as much as possible."

"I'll make sure I do," his daughter promised with a smile. "This is kind of nice, being at the World Cup – nothing like the games at Hogwarts. There's just so many people. I've just heard two blokes discussing the odds of the game in French – makes it sound so… sophisticated."

Sirius stopped walking and looked down at her with an eyebrow rose. "You know French?"

"I lived in Montreal for nine years," Izzy pointed out in an obvious tone. "People mostly speak French there. Harry and I grew up watching muggle cartoons in French. I'm not very good talking but I understand it pretty well."

"So your mother knows it too?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah," she confirmed. "But she can actually speak it."

"Hum, interesting," he mumbled as he resumed walking – he wondered just how arousing it would be hearing his wife saying words in French. _Randy git_, he imagined her calling him when he voiced his thought to her.

"Are those reporters?" Izzy asked him all of a sudden.

She cautiously pointed at a couple of blokes, one holding a camera and snapping photos of a guy Sirius recognized as a former member of Puddlemore United and another taking notes as he asked him questions. "Let's not find out," Sirius murmured, putting his arm around her and changer their course.

Luckily, his presence at the World Cup hadn't caused much more than a few stares and whispers and, as long as it remained that way, it was fine. He didn't want to take chances with reporters, though – it would be bad enough when they got wind that Mia was pregnant.

"I don't think they saw you," Izzy told him, looking behind.

"Hope not," he mumbled. "Let's talk about something other than the reporters. Merlin knows I really don't want to think of them. Tell me about your friends. I don't think we've talked much about them."

Izzy shrugged. "It's not like you have a herd of them," she said. "There's Ginny but you already know her – she's my best friend. Then Ron and Hermione, I guess, but they usually hang out with Harry. Fred and George but they're older and don't spend that much time around us younger kids. Oh, and there's Luna Lovegood. People find her a little… odd – her father is the editor of the _Quibbler_. But she's nice – you wouldn't believe the things she can come up with. For example, in the beginning of last year she thought you were innocent and that the whole thing with the explosion was a setup by potion smugglers. It was nice to hear even if it was a bit… weird."

Sirius looked down at her with an eyebrow raised. "Seriously? I think I like her already. But tell me something – is it me or little Ginny Weasley has a little crush on our own Harry Potter?"

She looked up at her father in surprise – how on Earth had he figured it out already? It had taken her over a year to come up with the reason for Ginny Weasley's nervousness around her brother. "What… what makes you think that?"

He grinned. "The way she looks all doe-eyed at him. And sometimes she blushes when he talks to her."

Izzy nodded, silently at first. "It used to be worse. The blushing, I mean."

"Ah, so I'm right," Sirius said in victory. "Well, you can let her know she may have a good chance with him."

"What do you mean?"

"For starters, I like her. Then, there seems to be a trend among Potter men to fall for redheads," he stated calmly. "Don't ask me why because I have no idea. I have once seen a portrait of James's grandmother and she was a redhead, Judy Potter was one as well and I don't need to tell you about Lily. All redheads – make Potters fall flat on their arses."

"Hum, is there any trend among Blacks?" Izzy inquired curiously.

He shrugged. "Not that I know of. But I do like brown eyed brunettes a lot."

She chuckled – he meant her mother. "I knew you'd say that."

Sirius grinned, stretching his arm over her shoulders. "Well, we should start thinking of going to the stadium – they'll let us go in a few minutes. I can't forget I made a promise to have fun to that brown-eyed brunette we have back at home."

---

The top box was as that much bigger than the others as Sirius had expected but, considering it was exactly halfway between the golden goal posts, it was bond to have the best view in the whole stadium.

In the moment he stepped into the box, Sirius was intercepted by Ludo Bagman. Luckily enough for them, the Weasleys and the kids were able to escape to their seats before the hovering started.

"Black, long time no see," the former beater greeted Sirius. "Different from the pitch at Hogwarts where we used to play, isn't this?"

"I can't disagree," Sirius mumbled. He was surprised Ludo Bagman still remembered he used to play on the team. "Good to see you, Bagman. Not playing anymore, I heard."

"Nah, bludger smashed my shoulder and it was never the same. Stuck with desk work these days," the other man said. "But the pay in the ministry is still good."

"Don't say…" Sirius said under his breath. "Speaking of the ministry, Fudge's not here yet, is he?"

Ludo shook his head. "Not yet. He's talking to the Bulgarian Minister. Or trying to… I took the liberty of getting your seats as from him as possible. Arthur mentioned you're not Cornelius's biggest fan. Honestly, I can't really blame you."

In that moment, Ludo Bagman was officially Sirius Black's favourite person in the ministry. The last thing he had been looking forward to that day was the potential need to share a single word with Fudge during the game – now his odds of escaping were higher. "Appreciate that, Ludo."

"Don't mention it, it was no trouble at all. It was actually nice, considering I managed to snatch that Bulgarian beauty who is the other minister's niece to the seat next to mine." Then, his eyes lit up as he looked at someone behind him. "Ah, Lizzie, dear, I was starting to think you had gotten lost."

"No need to send the cavalry after me," a slightly familiar voice replied in a bored tone.

Sirius turned around to see who it was and, to his surprise, he saw none other than Elizabeth Harper approaching them. She still looked nearly the same as he had seen her all those years ago: blonde hair, blue eyes and spotless pale skin – she had been, without a doubt, one of the prettiest girls in their year. Still, neither she nor Sirius had ever shown any interest other than friendship for each other.

Elizabeth approached him and Ludo silently, her face tense. "Ludo, would you mind leaving us alone for a moment?"

"Hum… ah, sure," he said, turning around to leave.

She had been wondering around the campsite for the past two hours trying to find out what to say. What was one supposed to say to somebody after having blamed that person for years for the loss of two of her best friends? The answer had come quickly though it sounded awfully empty in her mind – apologizing. That was all she could do now. "Sirius," she started. "I think I owe you an apology."

He raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

She nearly laughed when he said that – what wasn't there to apologize? Maybe she should enlighten him. "For starters, I apologize having you near the top of my hate-list for over a decade," she told him. "I had no idea about Peter, Sirius. No idea until Ludo told me just a couple of hours ago. Merlin, I still can't believe… This is Peter Pettigrew we're talking about. Who would have imagined…?"

"That was pretty much my reaction at the time," Sirius let her know.

"Second, I'm sorry for having called you a 'traitorous heartless bastard who should be rotting in hell for all I cared'," she continued.

"You never called me that," he told her.

"Not in front of you," she mumbled, looking down. "Sorry."

He snorted. "And you really think I'll hold it against you? If I had decided to hate everyone who thought I was guilty, I doubt there would be more than half a dozen individuals left in the world for me to like."

Elizabeth sighed – it was going easier than she had imagined. "I'm still sorry. James was as good as your brother. I should have known you'd never betray him. It was your loss too."

"Yeah, I'm glad you see that now," he told her with a sigh. "You know, Mia misses you – you were as good as her sister too. She wanted you in our wedding but she had no idea where to send the invitation."

"I had no idea either… none at all that you had gotten married," she told him. "Merlin, when Ludo told me I thought I had been struck by a lightening. But tell me, how's she?"

"She's alright," Sirius told her with a grin. "She's great, actually. You know she's not that big of a fan of Quidditch – last thing she wanted to do was getting herself in the middle of the World Cup. You should come over to see her – she'll be thrilled."

"I will," she promised. "Is there a problem if I do it tomorrow? I'm sort of looking forward to it."

He shook his head. "Like I said, she'll be thrilled."

Elizabeth smiled. "Now, I heard something about you two having a daughter and Harry…"

"Yeah. Her name's Izzy, by the way, What can I say? I have my own instant family. It's pretty great," he said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I have two of my own," she said, nodding at the blonde little boy being held by Ludo over the box's fence so he could see the stadium and his sister, who stood by their side. "Evie's eight, Harper's three. And, yes, they're little Bagmans."

"Merlin," Sirius breathed as he looked at them. Had it been part of his imagination or Ludo Bagman had told him about his plans to conquest the Bulgarian minister's nice just a few moments ago? Merlin, was the man blunt to the point of hitting on a chick in front of his wife?! "Honestly, Harper, I… I never believed you and Ludo would make it."

"We didn't," Elizabeth told him with a sigh. "But we remained friendly enough."

"Ah, right," he mumbled a little uncomfortably. "Well, I don't I introduce you to _my _kids?"

She smiled. "I'm looking forward to it." She followed him as he made his way near Harry and Izzy, who were listening to Ron as he rumbled something about Krum.

Sirius coughed in order to get their attention. "Izzy, Harry, here's someone I wanted you to meet. This is Elizabeth. She's…"

"Mum's friend," Izzy finished for him, getting up in surprise. "You're Elizabeth Harper. Mum's told us all about you."

"Oh, did she?" Elizabeth said with a smile. "Let me guess: brown hair, grey eyes, slightly marauder-like smile… you must be Izzy."

"That's right," she confirmed with a grin.

Then, the blonde turned to Harry. "And you used to be a lot shorter last time I saw you. But you're still your father's spitting image."

"Yeah, that never changes," Sirius pointed out with a grin.

"You were my Mum's friend too, weren't you?" Harry asked Elizabeth.

Elizabeth nodded. "Yeah, Mia, Lily and I were quite the group," she smiled nostalgically. "Good times."

"And you were Gryffindor's seeker," Harry said.

Sirius chuckled. "Yeah, she missed the snitch in her first game. Shame on you, Harper."

She shot him an offended glare. "We won the game anyway. Besides, _you _cracked _your skull_ in that game, which happened to be your first too."

"Ouch," Izzy mumbled, touching her own head. "That must have hurt."

He shivered. "Yeah, it was one hell of a headache. But your mother spent the whole time waiting by my sickbed," he said with a silly smile. "I'd say it made up for the cracked skull."

"Er… Fudge just came in," Ginny warned them suddenly from her seat behind Izzy.

Sirius looked at the box's entrance to see the minister trying to communicate – rather unsuccessfully – with the Bulgarian minister and his indeed statuesque niece. In a quick move, Sirius reached for his seat at the front and sat there before Fudge managed to get a glimpsed of him and came around.

Elizabeth chuckled. "Afraid of the minister, Sirius?"

"Bloke's a bloody stalker," he mumbled. "I plan to stay as far from him as I can."

"Alright then," she said, tuning to Izzy and Harry. "It was really nice to meet you two. We'll talk after the game." Then, she turned to Sirius, snickering. "Good luck avoiding big bad Fudge."

"Oh, shut up, Harper."

**A/N: For those of you who had asked where Elizabeth had gone, here she is... Sorry about the delay on the reviews reply - I had a few problems with my mobile internet acess but, hopefully they'll be able to solve it tomorrow when I go to the city (yeah, i'm in the middle of nowhere now). Anyway, here you have another chapter directly from an internet café. Be my muse. Review!**


	22. World Cup pt 2

While her husband and kids were enjoying their time in the Quidditch World Cup, Mia and her mother, Lulu, were back in Grimmauld Place eating dinner together.

"How long has it been since we last had the chance to spend a night together just by ourselves?" Lulu asked her daughter.

Mia shrugged. "I dunno. Years? It's not like we could kick Harry and Izzy out of the house to do it when they were little…" She summoned a little bottle full of a white milk-like liquid from the counter, which she poured into her glass. Then, she reached for a flask of cocoa powder that was on the cupboard behind her and mixed a spoon full of it with the coconut water.

Lulu raised an eyebrow and read the little sign on the bottle. "Is that… is that coconut water you're drinking?" Lulu asked her daughter in disbelief. "Oh that's just… ugh! You hate coconut ever since you were a kid! And with cocoa?!"

She sighed. "I know, this pregnancy is driving me nuts. I hated coconut, now I love it, I loved apples, now I hate them," Mia told her, taking a sip. "Want some?"

"I think I'll pass," Lulu replied flatly.

"Your loss," Mia said as she put the glass down. "You know, Sirius actually tries not to look like he's gonna be sick every time I make this odd mixtures – it's a nice thing to do, you know?"

"Sirius makes an effort because has to worry about making sure you won't kick him out of bed," her mother told her in an obvious tone. "I, on the other hand, don't have that problem with pointing out how weird your taste is, these days."

"You know, a nice mother would be telling me that the weird cravings were nothing wrong. That they were just, I don't know, a way to teach the baby what not to eat after he or she comes out or something," Mia told her with a glare.

"Not this mother," Lulu told her. "You should know by now that I tend not to follow the book. I'll tell you, on the other hand, that I became very fond of turnips – don't you dare laugh, Amelia – when I was carrying you."

She had to bit her inner lip to keep herself from laughing. "Well, I'd say between turnips and coconuts, I'd definitely pick the latter, Lu," Mia told her with a snicker.

"Oh, shut up," her mother mumbled. "Believe me, that fondness for weird food will only get worse now that you're in your second trimester. Maybe, _you_'ll see yourself asking your husband for turnips in the middle of the night eventually."

Mia rubbed her stomach – she was only two or three weeks away from starting to show. "Oh, I can picture Sirius's face if I asked him that. I wonder what he and the kids are doing now. Do you think the game is over yet?"

"I have no idea. But heard there was this World Cup that lasted nearly two weeks. They had to have the worst seekers in history…"

"Two weeks?!" Mia inquired in disbelief. This one was not gonna last two weeks, was it? The kids needed to go to school on the first. And she needed Sirius there to keep her… happy. "How did the players survive playing two weeks in a row?"

"I think they switched every few hours," Lulu said. "But it's probably not going to happen this time. They say Bulgaria has the best seeker in the world, after all."

Mia reached for her pocket and took out the two-way mirror Sirius had given her. "Maybe I'll just contact him to ask how the game is going…"

Before Mia could activate the mirror, her mother reached for it across the table and snatched the mirror right out of her hands.

"Hey!" she protested. "Give it back!"

"I'm sorry, but weren't you the one who threatened your husband with a beating if he used his mirror to contact you?" Lulu asked her with a smirk. "It's only fair you follow the rules two, Mia."

"Lulu, don't make me hurt you," she threatened, getting up and trying to reach it across the table. "Give me that!"

Lulu shook her head. "Hormonal threats don't scare me. And you complain about him being overprotective… You actually like it, don't you?"

"I wonder why I like _you_ at all."

Her mother chuckled. "Because I'm very likeable. Besides, there's no use using the mirror. You had your daughter hiding his, hadn't you?"

Mia groaned, now reminded she had. She sat back down. "Damn it. I'd forgotten that," she mumbled. "I just miss him already."

Lulu smiled. "You're so married. I can see the lovebirds flying over your head. But he'll be back tomorrow by ten. Just relax and stuff your face in the cake Kreacher left in the oven. What's a better way to get over missing your husband for a night than eating cake?"

"What sort of cake?" Mia mumbled, pouting like a little kid.

"Chocolate covered with more chocolate," her mother told her. "Oh, and more creamy chocolate in the inside."

She moaned, pushing her dinner plate away. "My arse will have two extra pounds by the end of tonight."

---

Despite Victor Krum's brilliant catch of the snitch, Bulgaria ended up losing the game to Ireland, to everyone's surprise. The surprise, however, hadn't kept the Irish from celebrating their victory with lots of booze and noise.

Inside the tent, Sirius chuckled as he heard the drunken cheers coming from the outside. It was past one in the morning and only he, Arthur Weasley and his two eldest sons were still awake. Elizabeth had been with them in the tent earlier along with her quite adorable kids but had left an hour before to her father's place.

"There will be no sleeping for the Irish tonight," Arthur Weasley said as the four of them sat on a small sitting are of the tent, enjoying a few butterbeers before bed.

Sirius laughed. "I look forward to see their faces tomorrow morning. They'll have the mother of all hangovers."

"I was sort of cheering for Bulgaria," Charlie mumbled, taking a sip of his butterbeer. "They're my neighbours after all. Plus, there's this Bulgarian chick in the dragon reservation…"

"Wait, dragon chick or human chick?" Bill asked him mockingly. "'Cause, as you seem to have the likes for both, I can never tell when you're talking about one or the other…"

Annoyed, Charlie kicked him on the leg, which owed him a punch on the arm by his brother.

Their father cleared his throat. "Boys," Arthur warned them in a stern voice. "Let's make sure the two of you make it back home bruise-free. Or else, the _three_ of us will have to hear from your mother. You don't want that, do you?"

They groaned, recognizing having their mother yelling at them for brawling wouldn't be such a pleasant thing, but despite making an effort not to go violent on each other, their glares at each other were almost as hard as a punch.

Sirius shook his head with a grin. "You know, you guys remind me of James and me," he said. "We tended to mock each other a lot, though we rarely reach the part when we started hitting each other. Usually Judy Potter stepped in before we reached it. I can still see her giving us that angry look – hands on her hips, face as red as her hair – and yelling at us for the next half hour. Then, she would shoo us to the basement and make us clean it, and believe me it was never ending basement, without magic. Hell of a woman, she was. Treated me like I was her own kid. Bless her."

"Well, doesn't that sound familiar?" Bill asked Charlie and his father with a grin. "Wonder if she and Mum ever ran into each other."

"Yeah, Molly does act sort of similar," Sirius agreed. "Then again, so did Lily. Must be a redhead thing."

"Probably," Arthur agreed.

Bill coughed and sat straighter on his armchair. "So, Sirius, I've been meaning to ask you this, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to. How does it feel to be out of… you know… the pit."

He was silent for a moment, wondering what he was supposed to use as an answer to that. "It feels… it feels like things are back on the way they were supposed to be – like the time I spent I spent in Azkaban is sort of like a big hole on the way."

Bill nodded but, before he could say anything else, the noise outside grew to unbearable proportions.

What had been cheers were now desperate cries and heart-shattering explosions. Whatever was going on outside was not a celebration – it was terror. Charlie was the first to get up and make his way to the tent's entrance to peak outside. His face was pale when he looked back at them.

"I think… I think it's Death Eaters," he said in disbelief.

Hearing that, Sirius practically leaped to the entrance too to check if Charlie wasn't imagining things. The black cloaks and bone-white masks were impossible to miss. It was, indeed Death Eaters. For a moment, his mind flashed back to the war years ago before the fateful night when his godson had, somehow, caused Voldemort to vanish.

Sirius stepped outside instinctively. One of the tents was on fire and another, the one of the muggle couple who ran the campsite, was being levitated while its terrified occupants screamed. The children's voices sounded like a punch in the gut, so impossible to miss.

"That's sick," he heard Ron muttering behind him as he watched the scene along with the other kids, who had just come outside called by Arthur. "That is really sick…"

"We're going to help the aurors!" Arthur shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. "You kids… get into the woods, and stick together. We'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

But Izzy ignored, taking a step on her father's direction. Her face was covered with fear, which angered Sirius to the point of wanting to run to the bloody Death Eaters and beat the crap out of them for scaring his little girl. "What's happening, Daddy?" she asked him, glancing at the cloaked figures. "Who are they?"

He shook his head and kneeled in front of her. "No time to explain. You need to do what Arthur said." Sirius placed a soothing kiss on her forehead and turned to Fred and George. "Look after her and Ginny. They're the youngest."

The twins nodded but Izzy didn't move. "What about you? You're not coming too?"

"I'm going to help fighting them. I'll be fine if I know you and Harry and are safe," he promised.

George came behind Izzy and grabbed her hand as Fred already ran with Ginny. "C'mon Iz, we need to go."

She gulped. "Don't get hurt," Izzy told her father before letting George pull her to safety.

Sirius watched as all the kids disappeared and took a deep breath before reaching for his wand and joining the fight. The Death Eater's masked figures were all over the place. Sirius was almost hit by two stunners and a full body-bind before he had the opportunity to reach Arthur and Bill, who were trying to put out the fire that consumed one of the tents.

His only relief was that the Death Eaters seemed not to be shooting to kill. It appeared they were just enjoying themselves – what other reason could they have when their master was long gone? The screaming was music to their ears. As he, along with several aurors, helped the people escape, Sirius couldn't help thanking for Mia's lack of interest in Quidditch. The last thing he wanted to worry about was having his pregnant wife in the middle of that and Merlin knew what a strong stunned could do to an unborn child…

One of the aurors managed to stun a Death Eater but, even before the other aurors could move to capture him, another cloaked fugure got hold of his unconscious friend and apparated away. They were escaping, all of them, like sand between their fingers. He wasn't sure how long it had passed before all of the Death Eaters disappeared, satisfied with the destruction they had already done, leaving the rumble behind them.

He then saw himself on the way to the woods along with Arthur only to stop when they saw a beam of light being shot to the sky from a few yards away and, all of sudden, their mark, the Dark Mark, was between the stars.

Then everything happened really fast. Something or someone moved not far from where the mark had come and the aurors showed up out of nowhere, aiming stunners at the moving shadows. The light of the spells illuminated their faces and Sirius saw, to his and Arthur's disbelief, that it was Harry, Ron and Hermione.

The immediately sped in their direction. "Stop!" Arthur yelled at the aurors. "_Stop!_ That's my son!"

Everyone's heads turned to them as they approached them. Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were ducking on the floor, looked up and their faces covered with relief. The three of them when they managed to get up.

"Are you all right?" Sirius asked them, making his way through the aurors and placing a hand on his godson's shoulder. "Did any of you get hurt?"

They only managed to shake their heads before Crouch came closing into them. "Out of the way!" he told them aurors. His face was taut with rage. "Which of you did it?" he snapped, his sharp eyes darting between them as he pointed his wand at the Ron. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"We didn't do that!"Harry replied, gesturing up at the skull.

"Do not lie, sir!" the older man shouted, looking at them as if he was mad. "You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!"

"Hey!" Sirius shouted, stepping in front of the wand. Crouch… he'd been the one who had made the official order for him to be sent to Azkaban without any sort of trial. Him threatening Harry and his friends was only adding bits of rage to his already swollen grudge. "Watch who you point that wand to, Crouch!"

Crouch glared at him. "Step out of the way, Black. This is none of your business."

"Oh, it is when you're accusing _my godson_ of conjuring the bloody dark mark!" Sirius replied angrily. "What are you going to do, Crouch? Send more people to Azkaban for life without a trial? You can bet your arse this is my business!"

Crouch pursed his lips but didn't respond to that. "Step… out… of the way, Black," he repeated very slowly.

"Oh, screw you, Crouch," he replied.

"Sirius," Arthur whispered warningly to him before turning to Crouch. "They're kids, Barty. They'd never have be able to cast such an advanced spell. Lower your wand, please, and Sirius will help you clear things out." He looked at Sirius again. "Won't you?"

"Sure. If he drops the damn wand and loses the attitude," Sirius growled.

The older man grumbled something to himself before lowering his wand and, seconds later when he was sure the wand wouldn't come up again, Sirius moved to his godson's side.

"Did any of you manage to see where the mark came from?" Sirius asked them.

Hermione nodded, pointing at the woods. "Over there," she said shakily. "There was someone behind the trees… they shouted words… an incantation…"

"Oh, stood over there, did they?" Crouch asked Hermione sceptically. "Said an incantation, did they? You seem very well informed about how that Mark is summoned, missy…"

"Bloody unbelievable," Sirius mumbled to himself. The man had to be completely out of his mind.

The aurors ignored Crouch's accusation and proceeded to raise their wants again and pointed then in the direction Hermione had indicated, squinting through the dark trees. There was silence until the group of aurors made it back to the group, shaking their heads.

"We're too late," one of the aurors who Sirius recognized and Kingsley Shacklebolt announced shaking his head. "They'll have Disapparated."

"I don't think so," Amos Diggory said. "Our Stunners went right through those trees… There's a good chance we got them…" He squared his shoulders, raised his wand, marched across the clearing, and disappeared into the darkness. A few seconds later, they heard Diggory shout that he had found someone.

Sirius took one step ahead trying to see who it was and, to his surprise, he saw that the someone was, in fact, Crouch's house elf, who had been at the top box with them during the game. _Oh, the irony, _he thought with satisfaction. That would set Crouch right.

Crouch stood frozen as Diggory deposited the unconscious house-elf at his feet. "This cannot be," he said jerkily. "No…" He moved quickly around Diggory and strode off toward the place where he had found Winky, despite him saying that there was nobody else there.

As he saw the man desperately looking for evidence to clear his elf, Sirius couldn't help wondering why on Earth and, especially, how an elf would conjure the Dark Mark.

"You don't seriously think it was the elf?" Arthur asked Diggory, voicing Sirius's thought before he managed to do it himself. "The Dark Mark's a wizard's sign. It requires a wand."

"She had a wand," Diggory replied, showing it to Arthur.

"Hey! That's my wand!" Harry said, pointing at it. "I've dropped it."

"You dropped it?" repeated Crouch when he approached them again. "Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the Mark?"

"Oh, come of it, Crouch," Sirius replied. "This is Harry Potter we're talking about. Can you imagine anyone less likely to conjure the Dark Mark? You're really looking forward to feed a kid to the Dementors tonight, aren't you?"

"I said step out of this, Black," Crouch growled.

"I said leave my godson alone," Sirius countered angrily.

"I didn't drop it there, anyway," Harry stepped in. "I noticed I'd missed it right after we got into the wood."

Hermione coughed. "Er… Winky was sitting right behind us during the game, saving that empty seat. Maybe… maybe Harry dropped it during the game and she cought it to give it back."

Diggory didn't believe it at all. After proving that Harry's wand had, indeed, been used to conjure the mark, a series of accusations were thrown against the terrified house-elf, who pleaded, along with Hermione, for her innocence. Still in the end Winky had ended up sacked rather coldlt by Crouch.

"It was absolutely disgusting," Hermione said as they made their way back to the tents. "The way they treated Winky. Like she was a thing. Disgusting."

Sirius didn't say anything. His relationship with Kreacher wasn't the best either, though he had made an effort to be nice lately, which had only helped confusing the house-elf.

The sight in front of them was of horror. Tents burned, ripped clothes all over the floor, broken glass… It was an authentic battlefield.

"What happened to Izzy the others?" he inquired his godson.

"We lost them in the mob," Harry told him. "But they were in front of us. I think they made it further into the woods."

"We need to go fetch them," he said. "They're bond to be worried."

"I don't think we'll need to," Arthur stated, pointing at the tents. Bill, Charlie and Percy were a approaching with Izzy, Ginny and the twins.

Sirius sighed in relief as he saw his daughter making her way to him and wrapping her arms around his waist for comfort. "You okay?" he asked her, rubbing her hair.

Izzy looked up, still a bit pale. Her lack of response was enough by itself. "Are they gone?" she asked in a whisper.

He didn't need to ask her who she meant – the Death Eaters. He placed one arm around her shoulders protectively. "Yeah, they're gone."

"Sirius," Harry murmured. "Those were death eaters, weren't they? _His_ followers?"

He nodded wordlessly.

"What were they doing here?" Harry inquired. "He's gone. They have no business here."

"They're a bunch of sick bastards, Harry," Sirius told him. And he was ashamed that once his brother had been among them. "Their purpose in life is to terrify people. That's exactly what they were doing tonight."

"Mum's gonna be worried when she hears about this," Izzy mumbled.

He shook his head. "I'll find a way for us to get home before she gets a wind of what happened… I don't want her to get a fright in her condition."

Arthur sighed. "Hell of a mess they made here. I haven't seen this much destruction in years…"

Sirius nodded. _At least nobody died today,_ he thought.

**A/N: Second part of the chapter is here - next one is already in progress. I hope you liked it - it was pretty hard to write with the distruction and all... Tell me what you think of it. Review.**


	23. Back Home

It was way past three in the morning when Sirius arrived home with Izzy, Harry and Hermione. Still, it was only more than half an hour later that he managed to make it to his and Mia's room.

While Harry and Hermione seemed to be oddly fine with what had happened at the campsite, possibly because they had been through equally dangerous situations more than once in their short lives, Izzy couldn't exactly say the same. She had done her best to hide it from him, but Sirius could tell his daughter was still pretty much shaken up by the attack. He couldn't blame her – stuff like that was not supposed to happen around kids or anyone else for that matter. So, just to make sure she was she fell asleep with no problem, he had camped by her bedroom's door and after he was sure she was out, watched her for several minutes looking for signs of her being in some sort of restless sleep – she wasn't.

When he finally reached his bedroom, it was past four and he found his wife sleeping on the bed, hugging his pillow. He grinned – Mia was using the pillow to cover his absence. _How cute, _he thought. He quickly stripped to his underwear and slipped under the single thin sheet that was covering her in that hot summer night.

He tried not to wake her as he rescued his pillow from her grip but it barely took him a second to see he had no chance – she had started waking up in the moment she had felt the mattress under her move with his weight.

She opened her eyes and looked at him in confusion caused. And then she saw her husband staring back at her. "You were not there when I fell asleep, were you?"

He chuckled. "No, honey, I wasn't," Sirius confirmed, placing a soft kiss on her lips and caressing her cheek.

Her mind was still hazy and it took her a second or two to recall why exactly he hadn't been there – the Quidditch World Cup. "You came back early," she said, yawning. "How did you manage to do that?"

"I switched portkeys with one of the aurors on service at the stadium. He needed to stay at the campsite a bit longer," Sirius told her, avoiding the details of why. Then he kissed her lips again. "Missed me?"

"Hum, not really," she mumbled. "I had my Indian lover coming over earlier to make up for your absence. Man, he's good. You've just lost him."

Sirius chuckled. "Dang, and I was hoping for a bloodshed tonight," he joked. It was only then that he noticed what she was wearing, which made him grin openly. "Ah, but you did miss me. Is that my shirt you're wearing, my highly adulterous wife?"

"Maybe it is," she mumbled, making him raise an eyebrow at her as if asking her to keep going. "Alright, I did miss you, so I snagged the shirt you slept in last night. It still smells like you." Then, she rested her head on his bare chest. "But I have to admit having you here is slightly better than wearing your shirt and clutching your pillow."

"Slightly, hum? You flatter me, Mia," he mocked, his hand lowering to the still nonexistent bump on her abdomen. "Was the baby good for Mummy?"

"Of course," Mia replied, smiling at him. "He or she was a good baby. Mummy wasn't even sick today. But now, honey, as much as I love to have you back here, I want you to stop stalling and tell me happened to make you come back earlier."

_Busted,_ he thought. Even drowsy from her interrupted sleep, she had a way to know things. The woman was way too smart. "Hum, couldn't it be that I just missed my lovely wife and unborn child?"

She rolled her eyes. "Try again," she said. "And don't tell me you've put yourself through the trouble of getting another portkey for a booty call. You're a randy git but not that randy."

He groaned. He really didn't feel like retelling last night's events to at five in the morning. But he knew Mia enough to be sure she wouldn't just let him off the hook. "There was some trouble at the campsite. I thought we should make it back home before you heard it from someone else and started worrying sick about us."

Sirius felt her tense under his touch and she pulled away in alarm. "What kind of trouble?"

"Mia, it doesn't matter. I'll tell you tomorrow," he said dismissively.

"Sirius, what kind of trouble?" she asked again, this time in a highly hard tone that, he thought, didn't belong to her voice at all.

He sighed. "Death Eaters trying to relive the old times," he said slowly. "Nobody was killed or badly injured, Mia. They just went messing around."

"D…Death Eaters?" she asked in an alarmed voice.

"Yes," he confirmed. "Mia, it was just a bunch of old men trying to see if they were still in shape to raise some hell. I'll tell you the rest tomorrow. Just let it go, alright? I don't want you to worry about this. It's not good for the baby."

"Merlin, Sirius, you can't just tell me that and expect me to let it go," Mia said, sitting up on the bed. "What about Izzy and Harry? The Weasleys and Hermione? Did they see it? Are they alright?"

"They're okay," Sirius told her. "Izzy and Harry are sleeping downstairs and so is Hermione. The Weasleys are going back home too. Harry was perfectly normal, though a bit curious. It's like he's already gotten used to this kind of trouble. Izzy was a bit shaken up. I stayed by her room until she fell asleep just to make sure she was alright. And now I'm pretty exhausted, Mia. Let's just go to sleep too, alright?"

Mia sighed. "Merlin, this just reminds me of the time when you-know-who…"

"He's gone, Mia," he told her before she could finish, pulling her back to him so she was half-resting on his chest. "That meant nothing. Malfoy and his pals were just trying to scare everyone. Just try to sleep, alright? I'll be here."

She had to admit, she was tired too. Maybe she would let it go this time. "Alright then," she murmured. "But I want to know everything tomorrow, alright?"

He nodded placing a kiss on the top of her head. "I promise," he said. "Now sleep."

And she did, just a few minutes later. It was only then that he let himself worry too. Mia wasn't the only one reminded of the dark times when Voldemort was in power by that attack. He wasn't feeling any better than her. But he also couldn't let her worry so much for hers and the baby's sake.

Besides, as long as he had her in his arms like he did now, he knew she was safe. That was the thought that allowed him to go to sleep too.

---

He got up at the same time Mia did in the following morning, even though that only gave him little more than four hours of sleep that night. The kids, he assumed, still had several hours in dreamland ahead of them.

They went down to the kitchen together for breakfast and found it empty – Sirius assumed Kreacher was probably running errands or whatever he did when he vanished. The day's edition of the daily prophet was lying on top of the table, by a plate full of French toast, still magically warm, and half a chocolate cake.

"Oh, chocolate," he mumbled, sitting by the table and reaching for it.

"Ugh," Mia murmured as she sat by his side and reached for a bit of French toast.

He turned to her with an eyebrow raised. "What? Now all of a sudden you can't stand chocolate?"

"No," she moaned. "I still love it. _That_'s the problem."

"What do you mean?"

She sighed. "I mean that last night I stuffed my face with that… caloric abomination. See the other half? Lulu only ate a slice – two at the most. I devoured the rest like a… like a starving ogre. I'll be as large as a planet by the time your kid comes out." And, as if illustrating the picture, she ate a large bit of French toast.

He chuckled. "Honey, don't worry about it. You're exaggerating."

"Shut up," she mumbled.

"No, really. You've barely ever gained weight, or at least more than normal, Mia. And even if you did, I can assure it would only mean to me that was more of you to love," he said with a grin. "My own planet-wife."

"Yeah, yeah," she said sceptically. "You're just trying to keep me happy so I won't kick you out of bed – Lulu pointed it out yesterday and, honestly, it does make sense."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Exactly. Lulu is such reliable source in what comes to the dynamics of marriage because of her long list of husbands," he said sarcastically. "How many was it? Five?"

Mia chuckled – she had to give him that one. "Times zero," she said, reaching for the Prophet. She reckoned it might keep her mind from calorie numbers. The cover, however, made her flinch. The image of the dark mark was spread on a moving photograph that illustrated the headline. SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP, it screamed.

She didn't say a word, scanning the front page. The article was written by Rita Skeeter, a known sensationalist reporter who had been filling her and Sirius with Owls asking for the rights on Sirius's story in order to write some sort of trashy book. Under Dumbledore's advice they had vehemently refused it. In the article, Mia read Rita complaining about lax security, the inability of the ministry do anything decent or to catch the responsible for the attack… She kept reading until she saw her godson's name being thrown in the middle. She frowned, reading the mention to Harry. "Harry is really up in his room, right? He's actually okay, isn't he?" she asked Sirius.

"Yeah," Sirius told her, swallowing a bit of cake . "Why do you ask?"

She coughed before reading part of the article out loud. "_Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived was caught in the middle of the fight after attending the game along with Sirius Black and his daughter. Anonymous sources say Potter was hit by an unknown spell during his attempt to escape and severely wounded. St. Mungo's hospital refuses to comment on this tip and, at the time, Harry Potter's whereabouts are unknown, to the wizarding community's concern._" She looked up at Sirius. "What the hell is this?"

"A pile of crap," he told her, snatching the newspaper to read it. "Giants helping the Death Eaters?! Has this woman been drinking? The tallest creature I ran into was this Bulgarian bloke who was at least eight and a half feet long. And apart from that thing by the woods, Harry was hardly in the middle of the fight."

His wife raised an eyebrow. "What thing by the woods?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you last night? Guess not," he mumbled. "He, Ron and Hermione ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time and saw someone conjuring the Dark Mark… Then, that idiot Crouch started accusing Harry of conjuring the mark himself! Can you believe it?"

Mia stared at him for a few moments, her mouth hanging half open. "What… Why does he _always _manage to run into trouble one way or the other? I'm not superstitious or anything but we _need_ to get Harry a rabbit's foot or four-leaf clover… or a horseshoe. Merlin, let's give him one of each – that kid needs ever lucky charm we can get him."

Sirius snorted. "Look, despite everything that tends to happen to him, I dare saying he doesn't need any lucky charm, Mia. I mean, how many people have faced a gigantic basilisk or a bunch of Dementors and lived to tell the tale?"

He did have a point. Mia put the newspaper down and looked at her husband. "How about you give me a full report on last night's events right now and we avoid any more nasty surprise from that blasted article?"

He sighed. "Do I have too?"

"You promised last night," she reminded him.

Annoyed, Sirius took a deep breath before narrating the previous night's events. Her face shifted to horror several times as he told her about what the Death Eaters had done to the muggle family who ran the campsite.

In the end, she was furious. "Bloody sadists," she said, pacing. "It's like they didn't have anything better to do. 'Let's just make an attack. Terrify a few people. We don't have plans for the night, after all. Then we'll get drink to the old times.' That's just sick."

Sirius nodded. "Harry mentioned he, Ron and Hermione ran into Malfoy's son. He lead them to believe his father was in the middle of the whole thing."

"Does that surprise you?" Mia inquired sarcastically.

"What surprises me is that the ministry didn't have all the known 'former' Death Eaters round up and interrogated by now," Sirius said in disgust. "Recruited under the Imperius Curse, my arse. I bet half of them still have a scrapbook hidden somewhere as homage to the good memories of the times when they served You-Know-Who…"

"You have to keep in mind Lucius Malfoy is Fudge's biggest benefactor – he probably has him in a short leash," Mia told him.

He got up, sick of watching her pace left and right and held her by the upper arms, all but dragging to a chair. "Sit down, for Merlin's sake. The pacing is making me sick."

"No honey, that's just because you had chocolate cake for breakfast," she replied with a glare. "Healthy."

He shrugged. "We all have to die of something someday. Might as well be because of eating chocolate cake at breakfast."

The doorbell upstairs rang suddenly, just as Mia had started to give her husband a scowl – she hated hearing him, or anyone else for that matter – talking about death.

"Stay here and feed the baby like a good wifely wife," he told her with a grin.

"I'll give you the _wifely wife_." But she didn't insist on getting up again.

He made his way up to the ground floor and to the front door. When he opened it, he saw a very pale Elizabeth standing there. Judging by her badly brushed hair and baggy clothes, it looked as if she had left her place in a hurry.

"Thank Merlin," she gasped. "I've just read the paper and came here right away. Is Harry alright? How bad is he?"

Sirius groaned. "The bloody article is bogus. Harry's fine – he wasn't hit by any spell, he's not in a life threatening condition or any sort of condition other than being sleeping in his room. Skeeter just thought that if she added some juicy mention to Harry Potter to the article, it might make it more interesting."

"Oh," she mumbled. "That's… that's awfully stupid. What a bitch."

"Don't say," he mumbled sarcastically. "Wanna come in? Mia's having breakfast at the kitchen now."

She sighed. "Well, now that I'm here and my dad is watching the kids. Why not?"

He moved out of the way, letting her in and closing the door behind her.

"Nice place," Elizabeth said, looking around. "And nice wards. When I first apparated I couldn't see the door at all. Then, when I checked that note you gave me with the address I just looked up and it was there. Weird and interesting."

"Yeah, it helps keeping unwanted people out of our doorstep," he mumbled, walking her down the stairs to the kitchen. "Mostly the reporters. They've nearly set a bounty for our address."

In the kitchen, Mia sat looking at the door as she heard the sound of footsteps down stairs. She could tell it was more than one person coming down, unless her husband had all of a sudden grown an extra pair of legs. She saw Sirius coming in, still walking two legs, grinning at her.

"You won't guess who just landed at our doorstep, honey," he told her.

And then, when she saw Elizabeth coming in, her eyes almost jumped out of her head in surprise. "Elizabeth?!"

"What's with the tone of surprise?" Elizabeth asked, turning to Sirius. "You didn't tell her I was coming?"

"Let's call you my little surprise to my wife," he replied.

Mia turned to her husband with an eyebrow raised. "You knew where she was?"

"Only since yesterday," he told her defensively. "Guess who also had a bunch of nice seats at the top box at the world cup? Well, why don't I leave you ladies to catch up down her and go snooze upstairs for another hour or two?"

Before he could turn around to leave, Mia got up, pulling him back and gaving him a quick kiss. "Thanks for the surprise," she said with a smile.

"Anything for the pretty wife," he told her. "See you, Harper." And then he was gone.

It was then that Mia finally turned to Elizabeth – she hadn't changed a bit.

"He gets a kiss and I don't get a hug?" her friend said, giving her an annoyed look. "That's nice."

Mia rolled her eyes and obliged, wrapping her friend, possibly her oldest friend, as she had met her even before Lily Evans, with a tight hug. "You're a real bitch, you know, Elizabeth? I wanted you to be my Maid of Honour but you weren't anywhere to be found."

Elizabeth pulled away, giving her an apologetic look. "Sorry."

Mia gave her a harmless glare. "Sit. Where the hell have youbeen?"

Elizabeth chuckled, taking a seat like she'd been ordered. Mia sat on the chair in front of her. "Here and there. But mostly at Australia for the past three years and at Italy the two years before that."

"Why the hell so far away?" Mia inquired.

She sighed. "Because it didn't feel like home at here anymore, Mia," Elizabeth said sadly. "Not since you left and Lily died. You were my family – as good my sisters. I tried to stay, I really did. I got married to Ludo, started working at St. Mungo's, had a kid and all. But it still didn't feel like home. Not until now, at least."

"Wait, you got married to Ludo and had a kid?" Mia asked in surprise.

"I'll get there," Elizabeth promised. "Six years ago, Ludo and I separated – Evie, our daughter, was two-years-old by then. Ludo is a great guy but he liked to gamble… a lot. He can never resist a little wager. Merlin, you wouldn't believe how many times we ended up with goblins at our doorstep demanding their money. I had a daughter to raise, so, I put an end to it and left. I don't think he blamed me for it."

Mia nodded silently.

"Then, a few months later my mother died and my dad knew I wasn't happy here anymore. He told me he would follow wherever I went because there was nothing holding him here either and he knew I could use a having family around and someone to give me a hand with Evie. So, the three of us left to Venice. But, well, let's just say every once in a while Ludo and I ended up rolling in the sheets again – and that's when I got pregnant again and little Harper Bagman came around. It wasn't long after he was born that we moved to Australia. Ludo visited the kids ever two weeks, sometimes stayed a little longer, no matter how busy he might be – he may be a gambling asshole but he loved his kids. And, well, two weeks ago the head of obstetrics at St. Mungo's filed for retirement and, as I gained quite a rep in the past three years in Australia, they went there begging for me to come back and take the position. You wouldn't believe the annual salary they promised me. I almost cried when I saw so many zeros."

Mia chuckled. "So, let me get this straight: you married Ludo, you had a daughter, you separated from Ludo, your mother passed, you moved with your daughter and your father to Italy, had another kid there, then moved to Australia and now you're back. For good."

"Pretty well summarised," Elizabeth pointed out.

"Hell, you were busy!" Mia told her, impressed. "And I'm really sorry about your Mom. You were pretty close weren't you?"

Elizabeth sighed. "Well, it was a blessing, really. She had been ill for a long time. But I'd rather not talk about it."

"Merlin, we're quite a pair of jars, aren't we?"

Elizabeth laughed. "Me divorced with two kids and living with my _dad_, you married to the guy you've loved since our third year or earlier with Harry and a daughter. Let's just say if this was a contest you'd be several points ahead of me, Mia."

"Does having a baby on the way give me a bonus?" Mia asked with a smile.

Her friend narrowed her eyes. "You got married three months ago and you're already knocked up?!"

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Mia inquired in frustration.

"Because it's awfully fast," Elizabeth told her. "How far along are you?"

Mia coughed. "My three-month appointment is next Thursday, September 1st," she said in a low voice. "And before you ask, yes, I'm pretty sure it happened a few days before the wedding. We were trying to make up for the list time, which, as you know, was a lot."

Her friend shook her head. "I always knew you and Sirius would end up with a house full of kids."

"Three is hardly a full house. Not this house, at least," Mia told her. "And you'd better bring yours for me to meet pretty soon. With you and Ludo as parents, bet they look like bloody china dolls."

"They're my china dolls," Elizabeth told her proudly. "Well, I guess we can say we didn't turn out that bad."

"I guess, we can," Mia agreed. "I kind of missed you."

Elizabeth chuckled. "Yeah, I kind of missed you too."

**A/N: I'm boiling here with the heat. I seriously am. I don't even know how I managed to finish this chapter with my brains melting. Anyway, I hope you liked it. Some Mia/Sirius time again. Leave some feedback and tell me what you think - review!**


	24. Muggle Date

**September 1****st ****1994**

"Now, Harry," Mia started telling her godson as they stood along with Izzy and Sirius at Platform 9 ¾, "can you please _try _not to end up at the Hospital Wing before the end of this year?"

Harry groaned. "It's not like I'm walking around trying to get myself there, aunt Mia? It's just that…"

"…trouble tends to chase you around," she finished for him. For once, she was starting to believe it might actually be the truth. "I know. But, well, at least give it a try, will you?"

He shrugged. "Sure, but I can't promise any prospect of success. Especially if Quidditch injuries count."

She huffed but didn't respond – keeping Harry away from the school infirmary one way or the other was just a lost cause.

"Feels like it was just yesterday I was embarking to my first year in Hogwarts and now I'm seeing my own kids off," Sirius said with a sigh. "I feel old."

"You're not old," Izzy told him. "Some wizards live until they're a century and a half."

"Oh, I guess that would make you sort of proportional to teenager in muggle years." Mia gave him a mocking grin. "That seems to explain a lot."

"You two think you're a couple of smartarses, don't you?" Sirius grumbled before turning to his godson. "See? This is what females are – cruel to you. But don't let that keep you from chasing then."

"Er… I'll keep that in mind," Harry replied in embarrassment – talking about girls was just too… weird.

"Use the mirror if you need to ask me for tips, kid," he told Harry, which earned him an elbow hitting his ribs, courtesy of Mia. "Hey! What was that for?"

"That was me trying to keep you from corrupting him further. Believe it or not, some boys can think with their upper brain," Mia replied with a glare.

Hearing that, Harry's eyes opened wide and he blushed. "Alright… I'll just… er… better get to the train… See you at Christmas." And he sped away like he was running for his life.

Sirius shook his head looking down at a smirking Mia. "See? Now you've embarrassed the kid. How motherly of you, Mrs. Black."

"Oh, bite me."

He was about to say he'd be happy to provide that but then he remembered his daughter was still there and swallowed the words.

"I guess I should go too," Izzy announced. "The train's leaving in a few minutes."

"Sick of us already, hum?" Sirius asked with a grin. "Alright then. Don't forget to write, don't behave too well and stay away from boys."

"Hey!" Izzy protested, looking slightly offended. "How come you offer Harry advice on how to get girls and I have to stay away from boys?" Not that she any perspective of getting one anytime soon but the concept itself seemed sort of unfair.

Sirius thought of what to answer. Because she was his little girl? Because he said so? Because he'd snap any guy who dared looking twice at her like a little twig? No, that wouldn't do. Not only would Izzy leave to Hogwarts annoyed at him but also Mia would probably be angry and kick him out of bed. Now, he'd gotten himself in a pickle.

"Honey, just ignore it," Mia said as she kissed Izzy goodbye, saving her husband from a potentially catastrophic response. "From what I've heard, this 'don't date' thing is common among dads." _Good ones, _she added in her head. "It's written on their brains from the moment they're formed."

Izzy shook her head in disbelief. "Silly Dad," she called Sirius.

"Devil child," he countered, leaning down to place a kiss on her cheek. "Have fun."

Among other parents who waved at their kids, Mia looked nostalgically at the train as it started to move sort of nostalgically. She wouldn't be teaching that year and she sort of missed it. She hadn't even succeeded in convincing Lulu to replace her in Hogwarts that year… She had to admit, though, that imagining her mother giving a lecture about the troll wars to a whole class was nearly as ludicrous as picturing Snape with clean, glossy, blonde hair. It might have been fun, though. Maybe one day she'd convince her.

In the moment the train disappeared from view, Sirius sighed, wrapped one arm around his wife's waist and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"You miss teaching," Sirius said. "And you're nervous because you're not the one who'll be teaching them History of Magic this year."

She looked up at smiled – he could read right through her. "Just a bit. But I'll go back next year. Dumbledore promised to make arrangements so I'd only have classes for a part of the day and be able to come back home every day so I can spend time with you and the baby. And, well, at least he didn't arrange for Binns to replace me. I believe Samantha Lawrence has a good enough curriculum and she agreed to take one year off the Magical History Society to go teach in Hogwarts."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Samantha Lawrence… now why's that name familiar?"

Mia gave him a little glare. "I don't know, Sirius. Maybe because you went on a date with her in our third year and ended up snogging her right in front of my face, though I doubt you were aware of that…" His face was still blank. "First Hogsmeade visit in our third year. Samantha Lawrence from Ravenclaw."

"I thought that was with a girl names Joan…or Jenny," he mumbled.

She groaned, shaking her head in disbelief. "That would be Jane Walker, the conquest that followed."

"Oh," he mumbled, turning to face her. "Well, you'll have to forgive my thirteen-year-old lack of taste. Truth is, you're the only conquest I care about, Mrs. Black. The others are nothing more than fuzzy memories." And he illustrated that fact with a kiss.

Mia's hand reached to his cheek when they broke away and she gave him a little smile. "You really think I would have married you if I wasn't sure of that, you silly, silly man?"

"Glad to know it," he told her, wrapping one arm around her waist again. They walked together to the wall that lead them to the other platforms of King's Cross. "So, now that we've dumped the kids on the train, what are your plans for this evening?"

"I assume I'll be doing something with you, considering you're asking me that at all," Mia replied.

He grinned. "You know me too well. I was thinking that ever since I got back we never had the chance to go out on a date. Just the two of us."

"Hum, aren't married couples supposed to stay at home getting bored instead of going out in dates until eventually they start hating each other?" she inquired forcing a serious tone.

Sirius sighed. "Nah, that was just my parents. Besides, we're not the average married couple, are we?"

"Not, really, no," Mia agreed. They stopped talking for a moment and cautiously walked through the invisible entrance to Kings Cross. As it seemed, no Muggle had spotted them. "So, what you planning?"

"Nothing too fancy. I was thinking that, after we get to your appointment at St. Mungo's this afternoon, you might let me… surprise you."

"Well, I like it so far," she said. "It's a date, then."

He stopped walking for a moment and faced her, cupping her face and pulling her into a passionate kiss. "A kid-free date."

"I'm afraid you're forgetting someone," she told him, patting her stomach. "This baby's going anywhere Mummy goes."

He placed his hand over hers. "This baby is still too small to understand the art of dating and all it's wonderful perks of afterwards."

Mia gave him a dignified expression. "Mr. Black, shame on you! I'm not one of those little tramps who shags the guy on the first date."

That was hardly their first date but he just went along with it. "I believe the fact that we're married already will save your soul from the flames of tramp hell."

---

The healer's appointment had been set up for 6 p.m. but as soon as they got there, about fifteen minutes earlier than they were supposed to, Mia was called. She couldn't help finding that awfully odd – she'd been a healer before and she recalled, between unexpected patients and assignments, rarely being able to get to her appoints on time, much less earlier than it was supposed to.

But the surprise faded after she and Sirius were guided to an office rather far from the others and larger, where Elizabeth sitting by the desk.

"I stole your case," she announced with a grin. "I thought it was time to finally use my new title as Head of the Department for personal reasons. My best friend deserves it. Hope you don't mind."

"Don't mind at all," Mia assured her as she took a seat in front of her. It was nice to have a familiar face as her healer, after all. Made her feel more comfortable.

"Fancy office you have here, Harper," Sirius said, sitting by Mia's side. The large room was furnished with a wooden desk, comfortable seats and several bookshelves filled with dozens, maybe hundreds, of books. A wood-covered wall separated the office from the examination are. "Far ahead of those cubicles the other healers had."

"Another perk of being Head of Department," Elizabeth told him. "Along with getting most of the interesting cases. On the other hand, there's the endless paperwork, boring meetings, everyone expecting you to save the day… Well, but let's not talk about that." She opened Mia's file and read the information there. "Alright, thirteen weeks along. Morning sickness?"

"Just a nasty memory by now," Mia told her with a smile.

"Yeah, don't remind me," the blonde mumbled, looking up. "It was worse with when I had Evie. Any other problem? You know, bleeding, pain, heartburn?"

Mia shook her head. "Nothing but the unstoppable appetite."

"And the coconut thing," Sirius added. "Remember how she hated it? Well, she loves it now."

"You know, it does taste good these days," Mia pointed out. "Fresh – helps me get through a hot day."

"It's the hormone thing," Elizabeth assured him before turning back to Mia. "I developed a weird passion for carrot – you know that you turn yellowish when you eat too much carrot, right? Well, I did. It was so weird – looked like a really weird tan. But, back to the consult. We'll just do the usual stuff: weighting, measuring, diagnosis charms, a few immunizing potions, vitamins. You probably know the drill already from your training."

"Yeah, a bit. I was more into general than the obstetrics speciality. But, from what that nurse at the reception told me, you're really good," she said, walking to the examination area.

Elizabeth smiled. "You were good too. But I guess you may be better with the teaching."

It took about fifteen minutes of poking, swallowing several potions, each one tasting worse than the other, and spells for Elizabeth to go over the whole thing.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong," Elizabeth announced, standing by the examination table. "Now… do you want to find out what you're having?"

"What do you mean 'what we're having'? A human baby, hopefully," Sirius mumbled as he stood up leaning against the wall.

His wife snorted. "She means if we want to find out if we're having a boy or a girl."

"Oh… do you want to?"

She shrugged. "I don't mind it. I mean, I didn't find out when I was having Izzy… But I guess we could find out this time just to be different."

"Alright then, let's find out. Lift up your shirt," Elizabeth instructed.

Mia did it, exposing the very slight bump and Elizabeth tapped her wand on it, murmuring an incantation. Nothing happened for a moment. Then, a white glow came out of the tip of the wand.

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "White? What does white mean? Shouldn't it be blue or pink?"

"I doesn't work that way," Elizabeth told him. "It's not about the colour – it's about the way the light comes it. If there are little sparkles, it's a girl. On the other hand, if it is a soft glow…"

"It's a boy," Mia finished for her before flashing a wide smile at her husband. "We're having a son, Sirius. Another one."

He had to sit down for a moment. "Wow," he mumbled.

"Yeah, wow," Mia agreed. "A boy."

Elizabeth smiled. "I guess it's blue, then."

"What's blue?" Mia asked her.

"Oh, just all the stuff I'm going to give to my godson," her friend said casually.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you think we'll make you our little boy's godmother, Harper?"

"The fact that I'm your wife's oldest friend." She turned to Mia. "Come on, I'll make the best godmother ever to the kid. I'm already looking out for him and he's not even born."

With a sigh, Mia looked up at her husband. "Do you mind?"

He pretended to think for a while – the truth was that he was just trying to annoy Elizabeth. "Well, I guess she can be the godmother in a condition…"

"And what would that be? Giving you guys my firstborn? Because, let me warn you, Evie can throw a mean temper when she wants to. Especially when her little brother is not around to be her guinea pig."

"You can keep the kid. The condition is babysitting. _Lots_ of babysitting," he said. "And no right to say 'no'. Whenever we decided to dump the kid on you, you just take him and don't complain."

"What if I'm working?" Elizabeth countered.

Mia shrugged, sitting up on the exam table. "Dump him on your father, then. Do you want a godson or not?"

A glare covered Elizabeth's face. "And you're backing him up."

"Merlin knows sometimes we need a break from kids," she simply said. "Besides, Lulu may want the baby for herself sometimes."

"Fine, then," the blonde accepted. "I'll be on babysitting duty."

"Great," Sirius told her with a grin. "Congratulations, Harper. You've just got yourself a godson."

---

It was nearly seven when they left the hospital and Sirius officially begun their date.

And he had, indeed, surprised her. That evening, Sirius had told her, they'd be muggle Sirius and muggle Mia out on a date in London. And, she had to admit, it had been rather fun so far.

They'd taken the underground to Oxford Street, walked in front of the large stores and between the thousands of people, ate at a little pizza place and, Mia had to admit that had been mostly her responsibility, did a little baby shopping. For that time, everything else was forgotten in their heads – no worries at all about Death Eater attacks or the prospect of the kids, mostly Harry, ending up in trouble again… It was just the two of them enjoying spending time with each other.

Then, Mia had, to her own frustration, succumbed to the wish of eating a massive ice-cream, whose calories, Sirius had assured her, would be burned with a night walk around Hyde Park. Part of her fought to believe it while the other knew he was lying through his teeth.

But they had ended up anyway walking lazily around the park arm in arm like a pair or newlyweds, which, technically, they still were.

"Did you ever imagine when you were on the run that one year later we'd end up like this? Calmly enjoying a date?" she asked him.

"I kind of wished something like this would happen. But I didn't really believe it," he said. "Exactly one year ago, I recall, I was running from Wales after being spotted by the aurors who were watching your old house."

She looked up at him. "I wondered at the time… you really went there looking for me."

"What else would I be doing there, anyway?"

"Well, that was very foolish… and very romantic of you," Mia declared, her head leaning comfortably on his shoulder. "It gave me quite a fright reading all over the newspapers that you'd been spotted."

He rubbed her arm for comfort. "It's part of the past now. We don't have to worry about me being spotted anymore… except for when it comes to reporters. That's one of the reasons I decided to make this date in a muggle fashion."

"It's a very nice date," she told him. "I wonder why we never did this before."

"Never came up, I guess," he said. "But we can institute a muggle-date night or something. At least until the baby comes. From what Arthur told me, we're in for a few rough months after that happens."

She chuckled. "Make that years. But it's worth it." Her hand touched her abdomen instinctively. "I hope he has your eyes. There's something about them that makes me… drown in them would be the easiest way to put it. Looking at that is like falling into a bottomless lake of liquid silver."

Sirius grinned, stopping their pace to face her. "He wouldn't be badly served if he got yours, you know?" His hand caressed her cheek, looking deeply in her eyes, lit by a street lamp by them. "So brown. So… warm. Is it normal for me to still be amazed by having you around after all these years?"

She shrugged. "Probably not. But I tend to feel that way too. I'd say it's pretty good, you know? Keeps us from getting bored of each other."

"We'll never get bored of each other, Mia. It's us."

She pressed a soft kiss on his lips and, when they broke apart, they resumed walking silently, watching as the moon reflected on the surface or the Serpentine's water. It was beautiful, calming…

"You know, I've been thinking about something… related to the baby," Mia mumbled.

"What? About names? We still have six months ahead of us to decide on one."

She shook her head. "It's more about… well, I was thinking that having the baby at home might be a good idea."

He frowned. "Having the… wait, as in giving birth?" Sirius stopped walking to look down at home. "At home? Is that even safe?"

"Sure it is," she assured him with a calm smile. "There shouldn't be any problem as long as the pregnancy goes smoothly. A lot of witches still have their babies at home. Molly had five of hers – twins are another business."

He still didn't look quite sure. "But what is wrong with having the baby at the hospital?"

"Look, it's complicated. I… My memories of having Izzy there are not that happy. I was bloody terrified, felt out of place, alone even though Lulu was with me. The only good thing on that night as when they placed her in my arms – she was my little piece of you. I want this time to be different, okay? Doing it at a different set, at the home, may be a good place to start."

Sirius sighed – he finally understood it. She wanted to create new memories, just as he did too. "With me there," he added.

Mia chuckled. "Oh, you'll be there even if I have to tie you to a chair. I'm not doing this again without you, Sirius."

"You won't," he promised, pulling her closer and kissing her forehead.

"So you're okay with it?" she asked.

"Just as long as it is safe."

"It is. I'll ask Elizabeth to do it. I've asked around – she's one of the best in obstetrical healing."

"Alright then. If she says it's fine too, I'm okay with it," he told her.

She smiled at him and kissed his cheek. "Thank you. This is really important for me."

He touched her hair softly and pulled her closer into a hug. "What's important for you, is important for me too." She leaned her head against his chest, sighing. "I just can't wait to able to meet him. Our son. To hold him the way I never had the chance to hold our daughter."

"Still plenty of time to wait," she pointed out, looking up at him.

"And I never believe I'd see myself thinking at 12 Grimmauld Place as home," he told her.

"It's home," Mia told him. "We're giving it a new history, making it our own. That's not the 'the noble house black' anymore. It's just 'the house of Black."

He grinned cheekily. "And how about we go back to 'the house of Black' and go give it a little more history. Highly rated history. The kind kids shouldn't know about."

She hit his side. "Now you're just being a randy git."

"Proudly." He waved what seemed to be a spoon in front of her face.

She gave him a confused look. "What's that for?"

"This is a portkey I made to take us back home we felt too… in a hurry to get home."

"In a hurry?" Mia inquired sceptically. "That's clearly code for 'in case I was so anxious to get in your pants that I didn't feel like taking the tube'."

"That would be highly unkind of me to say," he told her, in a dignified tone. "But you know me too well. So, wanna use the spoon?"

"You do know that eventually we're going to need to take a break from shagging because of the baby, right?" she pointed out.

He look on his face said 'obviously', like he had already thought of that several times before. "That's exactly why we have to make up for that time while we can."

She shook her head in disbelief. "You're just as horny as a spotty teenage boy. You can thank Merlin for the bloody hormones that make me be horny like one too. Just activate the damn thing."

Before doing it, Sirius pulled her closer and kissed her fully on the lips – the sort of kiss that would make a lot of people who saw it blush. "Oh, I really love you, woman."

**A/N: This one came a day later than it was supposed to but I just didn't have time to edit it before - time for the summer cleaning at the house... and it is a BIG house. Well, we're back to the plot paralel to the books next chapter. I hope you liked this one. Tell me what you think of it, okay? Kind of having a hard time here between polishing the silver and cleaning the windows. Cheer me up with a review. :)**


	25. Tournament

Halloween night made Sirius nervous. It always did. Even when he was in Azkaban and wasn't even sure it was really Halloween – he could have missed a day or two in his count, after all – he'd feel it there, the bad feeling. Just the previous year, it had made him edgy enough – or maybe mad enough – to consider breaking into Hogwarts and attacking a portrait a good idea.

Even though he was free, this Halloween wasn't an exception to that rule, though it wasn't as bad. The uneasy feeling was there but the sorrow wasn't as deep as before. Because he was home. He knew it would probably still be a lot of years before he fully got over the dark shadow that surrounded that date – maybe he'd never get over it for good. But it might get easier.

"Are you okay?" Mia whispered to him as she sat by his side on the couch and giving him what seemed to be a mug of hot chocolate. She was wearing baggy clothes, mostly his, as they made her feel more comfortable now that she didn't fit in her usual ones due to her pregnancy – she was more than halfway through it.

"Sure," he lied.

She looked at him for a few moments and then, when he didn't say anything else, she shook her head. "You're such a lousy liar, Sirius." She calmly took a sip of her own mug and shifted on the sofa so she was lounging on it, her legs resting on his lap. "You're having a dark day. I had one of those before, remember? April 21st? I used to hide from everyone, grieving for my sister until one day you showed up and refused to leave me alone. If you think you can lie to me about it, think again. I can be as pushy as you are."

He drank a bit of the hot chocolate before he placed his mug down and rubbed his hands up and down her legs silently. The problem with being married to someone who knew him so well was then he couldn't avoid a subject with a little white lie. He looked up at her and gave a sigh. "You don't need to worry about me, Mia. Really. The baby…"

"The baby is _fine_," she interrupted him, rubbing her overgrown stomach instinctivelly. "Don't use him as an excuse to brush the subject off. Halloween 1981 was one of the worst nights of your life. You lost a friend, your best friend, who was as good as a brother. You get to have a dark day over it… but you also get to have someone to make you feel better about it. That's what I'm here for, you know?"

"You lost one your best friends too," he pointed out. "Why aren't you having a dark day?"

Mia sighed sadly, placing her mug on the coffee table. "Because, as horrible as that day was to me too, it was also the day I won a son. Losing Lily and James, nearly losing you… it hurt so much, I can't put it in words. But I wasn't locked away and ultimately blamed for having Lily and James killed. I didn't _see _my best friend's dead body lying on the floor." Her hand reached for his and their fingers linked to his and she gave him a soft smile. "Talk to me."

"There's not much to say, Mia," he told her. "Not this year at least. It used to drive me nearly mad to be around the Dementors in Halloween. I think I opened myself more to them for being so… miserable. It feels different now – probably because I got part of my life back. I've got you here. On the other hand…"

"Oh the other hand what?"

He took a deep breath. "Well, this Halloween thing may be easier but there's other thing. It's partly about the kids."

"The kids?"

"This tournament," he specified. "I like the idea itself – kind of sounds like fun. But I have this bad feeling. The other schools arrived today and having Karkaroff, a _known former Death Eater_, in the castle at the same time Harry and Izzy are there… I don't like it. As if Snape wasn't enough to fill the role…"

Her hand left his and she used it to brush a strand of her hair off her face. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't thought of that. But by thinking, she had also found ways to make the prospect of having Karkaroff in Hogwarts a little less scary. "Look, I don't believe he would do anything to the students right under Dumbledore's nose. Plus, Mad-Eye is teaching there this year. Karkaroff would have to be completely mad if he pulled anything with the two of them watching him closely. Because there is no way Moody and Dumbledore are not watching him."

"Maybe so. But aren't Death Eaters a bunch of nutters, anyway?" he pointed out. "Remember my cousin Bellatrix? The crazy bitch with a deep fondness for the Cruciatus Curse?"

"She's a hard one to forget," Mia said dryly. "But didn't Karkaroff sell a bunch of his pals just to stay away from Azkaban? He's a wimp. He'd never risk ending up in a cell there – they'd find a way to kill him right away."

She had a point there, he had to admit. "Alright, so we're just supposed to lean on the wimp-factor and hope everything turns out okay?"

"If you haven't a better suggestion other than threatening, beating and/or killing Karkaroff, I'd say yes," she stated.

"Why do you rule out threatening, beating and/or killing him?"

She glared at him. "Because I'd rather not have you in Azkaban when I give birth to your son." And, as if she'd pulled a plug by mentioning him, Mia felt something.

"What?" Sirius asked when he saw her smiling widely.

"Give me your hand," Mia told him, reaching for it.

He watched, wondering what was happening, as she got hold of his hand and pressed it against her bump. Almost immediately, he felt a soft movement against his palm and looked up at her with wide eyes. "Wha… what was that?"

"He's kicking," she announced. "Our baby is kicking, Sirius."

In amazement, he felt his child move again under his hand. "Kid's really there…"

Mia chuckled. "I'd assumed my size had given it away already," she said. "You know, sometimes when I was pregnant with Izzy and I felt upset, she would kick me a bit. I liked to believe it was to remind me that she was still there, to make me feel better. Babies have a way of knowing when you're upset. Maybe he's doing it for you now."

"Maybe," Sirius repeated. Then, he lowered his head and lowered his head to lean his face against her bump. "It's sort of working, little guy," he whispered. He felt the soft kick again and chuckled, looking up at Mia. "I think the kid will make one hell of a Keeper some day. Kicking the Quaffles away from the hoop and all…"

His wife rolled her eyes. "Maybe he'll inherit my inability to fly a broom for more than ten seconds without hitting the ground or a tree."

"Ah, don't jinx him," Sirius protested, lifting his head again and touching the bump with one of his hands. "Don't listen to Mummy – she's just being silly."

"No, she's not," Mia replied, slapping his hand away. "In fact, considering the number of Quidditch-related injuries his brother has gotten so far, I may very well not let him go near a broom at all until he's of age."

"Merlin, you're a mother lion," Sirius mumbled.

Mia grinned at him. "Just looking after my baby," she said. "And, by the way… roar."

He burst in laughter, forgetting that bad feeling concerning the tournament that had had earlier.

But, as at that very moment in Hogwarts his godson's name was being called as the fourth triwizard champion, that bad feeling did have a very good reason to be.

---

**Hogwarts**

The staring was unbearable. Harry actually had the phantom feeling of holes being drilled all over him where everyone's eyes landed. That had supposed to be a fun night. He had hoped it would be his first Halloween in Hogwarts when there wasn't trouble.

But he had hoped too much.

It had all been working so well until his name had came out of the Goblet of Fire. He couldn't help thinking it was twice odd: once because he was the _fouth _competitor in a _three wizard_ tournament; twice because _he_, an underage wizard who in theory couldn't have placed his name in the goblet, had been called at all.

Nobody had applauded this time. Not like they had when Victor Krum, Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory had been called. No, he only got the stares. And couldn't blame then – him being called was something _very wrong_.

"Harry…" he heard Izzy whispering from the seat in front of his. She wasn't staring… she was just looking worriedly at him. He glanced for a moment at Ron and Hermione, who were looking at him blankly, then at Ginny, who shared Izzy's worried look, and then at his sister again.

"I didn't put my name in," Harry said to all of them. "I couldn't have. You know I couldn't have…"

Izzy gave him a faint nod, unsure of what to say.

"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore called again, rising by the staff table. "Harry! Up here, if you please!" The headmaster, didn't smile, didn't frown. He was expressionless, unreadable

"Go on," Hermione whispered to Harry, giving him a slight push so he would get up.

As she watched Harry go, Izzy reached for her bag. She knew she had put it in there just in case, but she couldn't find it. She needed it now, the two-way mirror, but she couldn't find it as she looked for it frantically.

"Give me that," Ginny told her, taking the bag away. "You're just gonna mess it even more and never find what you're looking for."

"The mirror," Izzy murmured to her friend, who proceeded to look for it more calmly. She pulled the mirror out seconds later and gave it to Izzy, who called her father's name. She hoped he had it his mirror with him. He needed to be touching it, to feel it heat up or he wouldn't know she was asking for him.

To her relief, her father's face appeared in the little mirror seconds later. "_Hi, Izzybel_," he greeted her with a smile.

"Harry's name came out of the goblet, Dad," she told him immediately. "He's… he's one of the tournament's champions."

She heard her mother's voice in the background saying '_what?!_' and waited for her father to say something.

"_He was selected for Hogwarts?"_ Sirius inquired.

"Yes… no… I'm not sure. Cedric Diggory's name came first. There are four champions," Izzy told him. "He didn't put his name in. He couldn't have, Daddy. Fred and George tried to pass the age line and ever they couldn't! They're geniuses and they couldn't."

"_Alright, calm down. Let me think,"_ her father told her and stayed silent for a few moments. _"Okay, do what I'll tell you. Get to Hagrid. Tell him your Mum and I are coming and that we need him to open the gates for us. We'll be there in a few minutes. Just… stay calm."_

"'Kay," she said seconds before her father's face disappeared from the mirror.

"They're coming?" Ginny asked her.

"Yeah, they are."

---

"I knew it," Sirius mumbled ten minutes later just after he and Mia had flooed to _The Three Broomsticks _and were making their way to Hogwarts's gates. "I just knew it. I had a bad feeling about this blasted day."

That and having their evening interrupted had put Sirius in a very crappy mood.

"He's not going in," Mia said as they walked. "He's not. I'm not letting Harry take part in that blasted completion. Still think it's fun?"

"Fun to see. But not when Harry's in it," he mumbled.

By the time they got to the gates, Hagrid's large form was already waiting for them.

"Good, yer here," the gigantic man said when they reached him. "It's nice to see the two o' yeh together again despite the occasion. I'll take yeh to Harry right now. Dumbledore knows yer coming."

"Hagrid, you were there when it happened, weren't you?" Mia asked him, one of her hands resting on her bump as they walked quickly up to the castle. "Tell me exactly what you saw."

"Not much to say. The three names came out: Diggory's, Krum's an' the french girl. Then another name came out: Harry. I don' need to say everyone was surprised," Hagrid said. "Dumbledore took him to the portrait room with the other champions then."

"Bloody Hell, the kid has some luck," Sirius mumbled. Maybe Mia had been right when she had suggested they gave him a paraphernalia of good-luck charms.

Mia's hand linked to his as if asking for comfort and he grasped it for her. They passed the castle's doors and walked into the Great Hall, where several students stared at them, some surprised from seeing their former History of Magic teacher walking in looking pregnant, others from seeing former fugitive Sirius Black in the room, others both.

From her seat, Izzy looked at them nervously and her mother mouthed to her that they'd talk later.

Hagrid took them to the chamber behind the staff table, the portrait room. There, Sirius recognized several members of the Hogwarts staff, especially Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and Moody, Ludo Bagman along with Crouch, Karkaroff, Quidditch player Victor Krum and probably the tallest woman he had ever seen, an inch or two over Hagrid's height, whom he assumed to be Beauxbatons's headmistress due to her being speaking in quick French with a rather stunning, silver-blonde haired girl. Harry was standing by Dumbledore's side with another boy who wore Hufflepuff robes – Diggory, he assumed.

"…the champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests," Crouch was saying. "Good luck, Miss Delacour, Mr. Krum, Mr. Diggory and… Mr. Potter."

"What the hell is this?!" Mia exclaimed angrily approached them. "You surely can't be considering that Harry will take part in this tournament!"

"Amelia…" Dumbledore started.

"No," she interrupted, lifting a hand to stop him. "Harry is fourteen. He's underage and I'm his guardian. I say he can't compete. He won't, for heaven's sake. _He's just a boy!_ People died in this tournament."

"We all agree, Amelia," Dumbledore told her in his usual calm voice. "But I'm afraid Harry has no choice. The Goblet of Fire produces Magical Bindings. From the moment Harry's name came out, he had no other choice but to participate."

"But how did his name get there in the first place?" Sirius asked him. "From what I've heard, there was an Age Line surrounding the goblet mad by yourself. Not even the Weasley twins were able to cross it!"

"I didn't put it there," Harry said as he stepped closer to him and Mia, looking directly at his godmother. "I swear I didn't!"

Mia placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke as calmly as she could, considering. Harry was nervous enough already. "I know you didn't," she said. "You do a lot of stupid, risky stuff, Harry. But only when you need to, when there are important things at stake. I have no doubt you were not the one to put your name in for the tournament."

Dumbledore coughed in order to get their attention. "Alastor believes someone may have used very advanced magic to put Harry's name in and make sure he was chosen. Possibly in order to harm him or… kill him."

"And he has to compete anyway?" Mia asked, pulling as godson closer in a protective fashion. "Isn't there a way to break the magical binding at all?"

This time, Ludo Bagman was the one to speak. "Apparently not. But I'm sure that if any kid is able to surv… er… finish the tournament, it is Harry."

"I still think it is outrageous!" Karkaroff said, offended. "Incedibly unfair for the other contestants. If Victor wasn't already bond as well, I'd surely leave right now. Just shameful!"

Sirius growled in the inside. Part of him wanted to launch himself at the man's throat and beat him to a bloody pulp – Karkaroff was undoubtedly on top of Sirius suspect list for placing Harry's name in the tournament so far. The other, the one who was winning, fought to contain itself in order not to upset Mia further – she'd had enough stress for a day and that couldn't be good for his unborn child at all. Still, it was good to imagine that any suspicion he had towards Karkaroff was probably shared by Mad-eye Moody multiplied by a few dozens.

"Igor, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it," Dumbledore told his fellow headmaster before turning to Sirius and Mia. "Once again, I am terribly sorry for this. I will give you a few minutes to speak to Harry alone before he needs to retire to his common room."

Mia bit her lower lip in order to keep the tears of fury from falling. Sirius's arm circled her and she felt he was tense as well. Were they just supposed to accept that? Apparently yes.

The others left the room quickly, leaving only Sirius, Mia and Harry there. With a sigh, Mia walked to a wide bench in the middle of the room and sat on it.

"I didn't…" Harry started.

"We know, kid," Sirius said before he could finish saying that. "The question now is: do you think you can do this?"

"I dunno," Harry murmured.

"When's the first task?" Mia inquired from her seat.

"November 24th," Harry told her.

She sighed. "Okay, that's over three weeks away. Do you think you can learn a bunch of defensive spells by then? Get ready?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe. If I get help…"

Sirius nodded. "You will. Ask the twins and Hermione. They may know a little more than you do. Ask us anything if you have doubts, okay? _Anything_. We'll look for defence books at home. There may be a bunch in the old library. We'll find a way to send them to you."

Harry nodded silently.

Mia took a deep breath from her seat. "I'll kill whomever got you into this mess. I swear I will. I'll pull his or her tongue out and use it to…"

"Alright, honey, spare us the details," Sirius told her, knowing it was the hormones talking, not actually Mia.

Suddenly, the chamber's door opened and Izzy entered the room. "Dumbledore let me come here," she said before anyone could ask her how she'd gotten there. She turned to Harry. "He said you're really going to participate in the tournament."

"Yeah, looks that way," Harry mumbled, sitting by Mia's side. He was so dead meat…

"We'll help you," Izzy promised. "Ginny and I will. We'll do what you ask us to. Research, serve as guinea pigs if you wanna test spells – just make sure you don't actually send us to the Hospital Wing because that would really suck."

"Thanks," Harry said with a nervous laugh. "But I doubt I know a spell strong enough to give you a headache at all."

"We'll work on that," she promised. "Hermione wanted to go to the library right now to research on past tournaments right now but McGonagall told her to go to bed. Ron is still in shock, I think. He hasn't said a word so far. Fred and George were planning to throw you a party when you get back to the common room – they really wanted a Gryffindor champion, I guess."

"Well, looks like you don't lack people who want to help you," Sirius told his godson before approaching Izzy and putting one arm on her shoulder. "Thanks for calling us right away."

She looked up at her father. "I imagined you'd rather hear it from me or Harry than from someone else," she said, turning to her mother. "How's my little brother doing?"

"Fairly well," Mia told her with a sigh. "I think he's having a kick out of this… literally."

"Might make a good keeper," Harry pointed out, getting up and joining Sirius and Izzy.

Sirius lifted his arms and looked at his wife in triumph. "See?" he told Mia. "That's exactly what I said before."

Mia rolled her eyes. "I think we have more important things to worry about now than our unborn son's future Quidditch career. The tournament, for starters."

"Yeah," Harry mumbled. "Do you think Moody is right? That someone put my name in to kill me?"

"Might be," Sirius told him honestly. "But we won't let that happen."

Mia took a deep breath before talking – she needed to convince herself before saying. "You'll get ready and you'll do fine," she said. "Whoever did it will get one hell of a disappointment."

"And maybe you'll win in the end," Izzy added.

"I'll be happy if I live through it," Harry told her and glanced at a huge antique clock on the wall – it was almost ten. "I guess we should go back to the common room. Nearly curfew."

Mia nodded and got up from her seat, approaching him and giving him a hug. "Be careful."

"I will," he promised.

Then, she gave a goodbye kiss to Izzy and, seconds later, she and Sirius were alone in the room. "Do you think he'll make it okay?"

Sirius took a couple of steps in her direction and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chest on the top of her head. "If any fourteen-year-old can make it out of this tournament okay, it is Harry."

Mia sighed. She hoped he was right.

**A/N: Finally managed to send my laptop to get an upgrade! It really needed it. Even though this may be great in a way, it's not so much in the other because for now I have to share my sister's computer... thus the updates slowing down a bit. Well, I hope you liked this one. Tell me what you think of it! Feed my addiction and review!**


	26. Wand Weighing

Harry's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire had sent waves all over the school. According to the letters Izzy had sent home – because he barely ever said anything about it in his –, almost every non-Gryffindor student seemed to either have developed a grudge on him or an annoying need to whisper every time he passed by. And even some Gryffindors, Ron surprisingly among them, had turned to avoid him like the plague.

It was nearly two weeks later that Sirius and Mia had the chance to come back to Hogwarts in order to attend the Weighing of the Wands ceremony as Harry's guardians.

"What's the weighing of the wands, anyway?" Sirius asked his wife minutes before the two of them flooed from Grimmauld Place to Dumbledore's office.

"It is a ceremony where the champion's wands are checked in order to make sure they won't end up dead because there's something wrong with it."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "And why do they need a ceremony for that?"

Mia shrugged. "It's tradition."

_A stupid tradition – probably just an excuse for the press to invade the damn school, _Sirius thought.

His wife handed him a handful of floo powder. "Get going. I'll be right behind you."

"I'll be there to hold you in case you land badly. Don't want you to end up squishing the baby." He placed a kiss on her lips, stepped into the fireplace and, only a moment after he'd thrown the powder, he saw himself inside Hogwarts's headmaster's office.

It had been years since he'd been there – and the last time, in his fifth year, he recalled, he'd been in one hell of trouble when he'd been there due to that prank he had decided to play on Snape, which had very nearly got him killed.

Mia came out of the fireplace not long after and gave him a smile when he looked back at her.

Dumbledore, who'd remained unseen until then covered by one of the bookcases, came to view. "Ah, Sirius, Amelia. How wonderful to see you. Everything alright with you, I hope."

Sirius gave a nod while Mia spoke. "Good morning, Albus. Thank you for letting us to come to the ceremony. I know you made an exception…"

Dumbledore raised a hand, stopping her. "Harry is an underage wizard participating in a very demanding contest," the headmaster said, circling the room in order to seat at his desk. "It's only right he gets to have someone to… shield him during it. Especially when the press is scheduled to be present here. Now, please have a seat. We still have a few moments before the ceremony."

They didn't hesitate to oblige and sat on the two chairs right in front of Dumbledore's desk. "How is he doing?" Sirius asked.

"Remarkably well, considering the circumstances. Minerva has told me he spend a great deal of his free time practicing spells with Miss Granger, Miss Weasley and your daughter. Alastor has also been trying to smuggle him some helpl. He's friendship with Mr. Weasley is, in the other hand, rather strained. But I trust they will go back to normal soon."

"Do you think he is safe? Someone placed his name in that goblet. Do you have any idea who? Because I have a few names popping in my mind…"

"Sirius," Dumbledore said in a firm tone. "I do not believe Igor Karkaroff, or any teacher in this school for that matter, was responsible for what happened."

"His past doesn't favour him," Sirius countered.

Mia elbowed him softly to stop him. "Just let it go, Sirius," she whispered. "Now we need to worry about Harry, not punishing whoever got him in trouble. Truth has its own way of surfacing."

"Wise words," Dumbledore agreed with a nod. He looked at one of the many clocks in the room and sighed. "When truth does, indeed, come out, I'm sure justice will be made. In the meanwhile, we have a ceremony to attend."

---

A few minutes later, Dumbledore escorted Sirius and Mia into the classroom where the wand-weighing ceremony was to be held. It was fairly small room but the fact that all the desks, except for two, who were currently covered in red velvet as serving as some sort of jury table, had been pushed against the wall made it look slightly – very slightly – larger.

"I am sorry for the lateness," Dumbledore said. "I'm afraid we got a little delayed on the way here."

Ludo Bagman, who had been sitting at the jury table talking to Barty Crouch got up and approached them amicably. "No problem at all, Albus. We haven't started yet." He turned to Sirius and Mia. "I didn't have the chance to congratulate you in the other day for the new addition," he stated, nodding at Mia's bump. "Still a few months to go, hum?"

"A little over three," Sirius said with a grin. "A boy."

Mia smiled silently at the pride all over his voice.

"Oh, congratulations," Ludo said. "Lizzie says 'hi', by the way."

Mia raised an eyebrow. How exactly had he seen Elizabeth that day already if it was just a couple of minutes after eleven in the morning? Early visit? Or maybe a late stay…

"I came by her place yesterday," Ludo continued. "You know, to spend some time with the children. Happened to mention the ceremony today and that you'd probably come as well."

"Oh, alright then," she murmured, realizing she'd been too quick to judge.

She looked around the room, absently searching for Harry but didn't see him anywhere. Where was he? Cedric Diggory gave her a polite nod from his seat by Victor Krum's side. Fleur Delacour sat discussing her duel techniques with Madame Maxime in quick French.

"Where's Harry?" Sirius asked, noting his absence too.

"Exactly," Dumbledore agreed, nodding. "Where is young Harry?"

Ludo laughed nervously. "Rita borrowed him. She wanted to start with his interview…"

"Rita Skeeter?" Dumbledore asked, receiving a nod in return.

"I tried to stop her but she's quicker than I am," Ludo said with a gulp.

Mia gritted her teeth. "Oh, that little…" She turned on her heel and walked out of the room looking for her godson, followed by Sirius and Dumbledore. It didn't take her long to find Harry, as she heard his voice coming from inside a broom cupboard right around the corner. _"I have NOT got tears in my eyes!"_

She followed it and pulled the door of the broom cupboard open to find Harry looking at the blond reporter in frustration. If she didn't know him better, she'd say he was awfully close to stab her with her own horrid acid-green quill.

Rita looked at her in annoyance. "Do you min…" Then, she saw the headmaster behind Mia and her face shifted to every appearance of delight. "Dumbledore! How are you? I hope you saw my piece over the summer about the International Confederation of Wizards' Conference?"

"Enchantingly nasty," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "I particularly enjoyed your description of me as an obsolete dingbat."

Rita got up and stepped out of the broom closet. "I was just making the point that some of your ideas are a little old-fashioned, Dumbledore, and that many wizards in the street …"

"I will be delighted to hear the reasoning behind the rudeness, Rita," said Dumbledore, with a courteous bow and a smile, "but I'm afraid we will have to discuss the matter later. The Weighing of the Wands is about to start, and it cannot take place if one of our champions is hidden in a broom cupboard."

"Very well," Rita agreed.

Harry left the broom cupboard and quickly made his way to Sirius and Mia's side as if hoping they'd shield him for the raving lunatic of a reporter.

Rita's reactions when she saw Sirius was quite different. "Well, what do we have here? Sirius Black in the flesh. How lovely. I'm not sure you got my letter about the book…"

"I did," Sirius said quickly. "And I wrote back saying something in the lines of 'I'd rather be hit by the Hogwarts Express'."

The reporter faked surprise. "Really? Funny I never got it. Owls these days… so unreliable."

"I'm sure they are," Mia said through her teeth.

Rita gave her one of her very fake smiles. "Oh, and you must be Amelia Black. I am terribly sorry for my earlier reaction – you must understand I need all the quiet I can get for my interviews. Now, tell me about baby Black. Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Neither, it's an 'it's none of your business'," Mia replied, matching the smile.

The reporter's face hardened. "People have a right to know."

"About my family's personal lives? No, they don't. People should mind their own. And by the way…" Just as she said it, Mia snatched from Rita's hand the parchment where her acid-green quill had written the interview with Harry.

"Excuse me! What do you think you are doing?" Skeeter inquired in outrage.

"Did you know that it is illegal to interview underage wizard without a guardian's consent?" Mia asked the blonde woman.

"Oh, please, that is just a formality," Rita said dismissively. "Nobody ever cares about it."

"Well, I do. As Harry's guardians, my husband and I didn't consent the interview. Thus," Mia stated, using her wand to cast a spell that turned the parchment into ashes, causing Rita's eyes to snap wide open in horror, "It burns to ashes." She turned to her godson. "Come on Harry."

Sighing in relief, Harry followed Mia.

"You… you!" Rita babbled.

Sirius spoke to her with a grin. "You'll have to excuse her. Hormones." And then, he joined his wife and godson on their way back to the classroom.

"Thank Merlin you showed up," Harry murmured as they walked. "She's insane. She was writing in the article that I was crying! I don't… _cry._"

"My pleasure," Mia said with a smile. Rita's face would have her smiling for the rest of the day – the rest of the week, maybe."

"You could have snapped the quill in a half too," Sirius told her. "It gave me the twitches – looked like it had green Slytherin blood running in it."

"Probably did," Harry pointed out. "That thing kept making up quotes."

"I'll leave the quill for next time," Mia let them know, entering the classroom again.

Sirius grinned. "I knew I had married you for some reason. My own badass wife."

She smiled at him in return right before Ludo Bagman approached them. "Excuse me, I will have to borrow Harry for the ceremony. Ollivander is already here waiting…"

"Oh, sure, go ahead," Mia said, turning to Harry and pointing at a few chairs by the wall. "I'll be sitting right there."

Harry nodded before approaching the other champions and, while Mia left to sit down, Sirius stood there with Ludo, smiling after her.

"I heard your wife made a number on Skeeter," Ludo whispered. "I never took her for the confrontational type but I have to admit I'd pay to have seen it."

"It was quite a show," Sirius told him with a grin.

"Hormones, right?" Ludo asked. "Lizzie threw a few fits on me when she was pregnant. Her moods changed more often than a teenage boy changes his underwear."

He chuckled. "You bet they do. Sometimes it is like she has multiple personalities: there's regular Mia, cheery Mia, weepy Mia, angry Mia and…" he thought of horny Mia with a smile, "well, I don't feel comfortable mentioning the fifth personality out loud. But it is one my favourites for sure."

Ludo snorted. "I can relate. But wait for when she goes in labour. Then the moods will be through the roof." And he left to join Crouch by the champion's side.

Sirius left to join Mia, sitting on the chair by her side and watched as Ollivander examined Fleur Delacour's wand.

"I still don't get why they need a ceremony for this," Sirius whispered. "Ollivander could have easily done in ten minutes during their lunch break. Merlin, the man still gives me the creeps. He just looks at people and starts enumerating everything about their wands."

"Good memory," Mia pointed out. "Lots of experience. I wonder how old he is."

"A thousand, I'd bet," Sirius said through his teeth, getting up again and starting to pace around the room.

After having her wand checked, Fleur Delacour left the centre of the room and moved gracefully towards the chairs, sitting by Mia's with a sigh.

"It's sort of annoying, isn't it?" Mia asked her. "Needing to communicate in English all the time when you're not used to it."

Fleur turned to her head to her and nodded, chuckling. "Verri. You are 'Arry's gozmozer, n'est pas?"

Mia nodded. "Yes. I'm Mia. I've been in the same situation but in reverse – needing to communicate in French all the time. You'll get used to it."

"Vous parlez Français?" Fleur asked in surprise, back to her mother language.

"Oui. Dix ans à Montréal. But stick with the English – it gets easier with time, trust me."

She nodded. "I'm Fleur. But you must know zat already. Eet is good to know I am not ze only one."

"Hardy. Do you know if this thing will take long? The ceremony."

"I don't zink so," she said. "'Arry will be ze last one. No offence but I don't zink ziz tournament iz for a fourteen eear-old boy like 'Arry," Fleur stated.

Mia nodded her head in agreement. "Neither do I and, to be frank, neither does he," she told Fleur. "But hopefully he will turn out fine."

The French girl gave her a small smile, clearly not so confident in that. "Zis your first bébé?" Fleur inquired as she looked at her overgrown stomach, changing the subject.

"No, I already have a girl. She's a third year here in Hogwarts," Mia told her. "And Harry – I guess that makes him my third."

Fleur was about to say something when she was called by Madame Maxime and she rose from her chair. "I need to go. Eet was verry nice to meet you," she said with a smile.

"You too," Mia said before noticing Sirius standing there staring, actually staring, at her. "What's wrong? Do I have something on my face? How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to hear you speak in French," he sat back on the chair he had been occupying earlier. "Do you have any idea how hot you seam when you do that?"

"It was only a sentence. And I'm not that good – I suck with the articles, for instance."

"Still hot."

He had the gleam in his eyes, she noticed. The I-want-to shag-you-right-now gleam. That was bad. "Oh, for Merlin's sake," she said, rolling her eyes. "We did it just a few hours ago! You're as randy as a sixteen-year-old kid these days. Honestly, if you're hoping to get a quickie now, think again. We're in a school."

"Wouldn't be the first time we do it in this school, honey…"

She covered her ears – she didn't have that much self-control these days either due to the hormonal rushes. Best not give him a chance to convince her. "I am not listening to you! It won't work. Not now."

He grinned. It could wait. But he knew he'd have her again when they got home.

---

Izzy left her Muggle studies classroom with Ginny in order to go to the Great Hall for lunch, for which they were already late, due to her and Ginny having stayed late talking to Professor Burbage.

But, when they main stairwell, Izzy's flushed face shifted to a smile as she found none other than her father standing at the bottom of it.

"Daddy!" she yelled and, like usual – it was too strong for her to resist after so long without him around –, she launched herself at his arms. "You're still here! I thought you and Mum were going to leave before I finished my last morning class."

"Your mother and I thought we might stay a bit longer." He looked at Ginny. "Hope you don't mind I steal your best friend. We have plans for her."

"Just as long as you give her back in one piece," Ginny said with a shrug. "I can sit with Luna at the Ravenclaw table during lunch, I guess. It would help me keeping my distance from Ron."

"You're not speaking to Ron either?" Sirius asked her.

"Not when he's being a git."

"Alright then," he said as Izzy moved to stand by his side and he placed on her shoulders. "We'll get going now."

"See you later in potions," Izzy told Ginny before she and Sirius walked away.

"Ugh," her father mumbled. "That's with Snape, right? Is he as bad as I imagine? And picture a post-apocalyptical setting for your potions classes when you try to guess how I imagine them."

Izzy chuckled. "Well, not _that _bad. But he just hates all Gryffindors and loves to get me and Harry in trouble. Mom reckons it is because you and James Potter 'were a bunch of idiots to him when you were students here'."

Sirius stopped walking and raised an eyebrow at his daughter. "Did you just call Daddy an idiot, sweet child of mine?"

"I was quoting Mom," Izzy let him know. "Those were her exact words, I think."

He snorted. "That sounds like her." Mia had never kept herself from pointing out how stupid she thought his pranks were so it was no news her calling him an idiot over it. Now that he thought of it, she'd probably gotten that ability to speak up easily from Lulu…

They took the door to the right of the main staircase in the entrance hall and Izzy raised an eyebrow. "Where exactly are we going?"

"To the kitchens," Sirius stated obviously as they followed the corridor. "Don't tell me you haven't seen them in the map yet."

"It's mostly Harry who has it," she said. "I guess he needs sneaking a lot more than I do these days so people won't flash their stupid pins on his face."

"What pins?"

"You didn't see them?" she asked in surprise. "Well, some students made up some stupid pins to support Cedric Diggory that, from time to time, change to say 'Potter stinks' because they still think Harry planned to have his name coming out of the goblet. It's stupid. Fred and George are trying to find a way to turn the message around or something."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "See if you can get hold of one of those and send it to me…"

"You think you can change it?"

"Honey, not to sound cocky or anything but I'm one of the three creators of the Marauders Map – note the number because Wormtail just sat on his arse while we worked on it – and was an animagus by my fifth year. A stupid pin has to be a piece of cake compared to all that." They stopped in front of a painting of a bowl of fruit. "Go ahead and tickle the pear."

She didn't hesitate, guessing that would be the way to open a secret passage. The pear giggled and became a door handle, which her father promptly opened. Behind the door, she saw the hundreds, maybe thousands, of house-elves that worked in Hogwarts.

She saw her mother sitting with Harry by a small table at a corner. Mia was, apparently, going over an abnormally large book – one that could bring Hermione to tears – with Harry. She looked up and smiled when she saw her daughter and closed the book.

"Here's the kid, Mrs. Black," Sirius said with a mock-anger expression, pushing Izzy in her direction. "Mission accomplished."

Mia shook her head as she got up to kiss her daughter's cheek as she looked around the large room in amazement. "It's impressive isn't it? I had a similar reaction when your father got me here for the first time." She turned to Sirius, placing a hand on the large book on the table. "Help me get this book to the floor, will you. I don't want to reduce it just yet and I guess it's too big for me."

"What did you bring it here for, anyway?"

Harry answered for. "It's on defensive spells. She was just highlighting the most important subjects there for me to read."

Izzy raised an eyebrow and snorted as she moved around the table and sat in front of him. "You mean for Hermione to read and explain the practical part to you?"

"Something like that," her brother admitted in a mumble.

"Well, it doesn't really matter how he does it as long as he learns the spells in the end," Sirius pointed out after getting the heavy book to the floor. "So, things with Ron are still bad?"

"Yeah," he grumbled.

"Ginny and Hermione reckon he's jealous of the attention," Izzy said.

They were probably right, Sirius imagined. And he couldn't really blame Ron – it mustn't be easy to be in the shadow of the most famous boy in the wizarding world. He just hoped Ron would come to his senses soon or the two of them would likely lose a best friend.

"Let's just talk about something else," Harry suggested. "Back to the tournament."

Mia nodded. "Do you have any idea what the task will be about, Harry?"

He shook his head. "None yet. I'm training all sorts of spells just to be sure I'll be ready for anything: disarming, stunning, petrifying, summoning, freezing and on," Harry told them.

"I learned the petrifying one – it's pretty cool," Izzy pointed out. "It was only fair I got to learn it since it's been used on me dozens of times…"

"But we always cover the floor with pillows so she won't smash her skull or something," Harry added quickly.

"Hurts like hell," Sirius said with a shiver. "Wouldn't advise it to anyone unless you're either masochistic or a Death Eater." _Or Snape, _ he added in his head.

Mia sighed. "Well, I guess you're doing all you can do to get ready, considering how few we know of the task. I think you'll be just fine." She was saying that last part more to convince herself than Harry.

"And don't mind what everyone else thinks," Sirius added, remembering the stupid pins Izzy had told him about. "You're a Hogwarts champion and you'll do great in this tournament. You can bet I'll be there during the task to hex anyone who says otherwise."

"I'll just keep serving as one of your training dummies in the meanwhile," Izzy said. "But for now I'll be happy with some lunch."

"Yeah, better hurry up," he said, turning his face to Mia. "Your mother and I have stuff to do."

Mia glared at him but didn't say a thing.

"What sort of stuff?" Harry asked them.

"Then sort you definitely don't want to think about," his godfather replied.

Harry smiled and felt glad to have them – the only family he'd known, who were there to support them through practically everything, good or bad. And to give him a laugh or some embarrassment – like the case was now – whenever he needed. It was good not to feel alone in the world.

**A/N: Sorry for the lateness but I've been in a weekend trip and today was my little brother's birthday (the big 10), so it was kid stuff all day. Anyway, I got you an extra huge chapter this time - don't get used to it, I've been going awfulkly overboard these days. Next chapter is already in progress. Hope you liked it! Review!**


	27. Something Black

**A/N: A few people mentioned some problems with this chapter, so I reposted it. This is the first half of the chapter (though I'm not calling it part 1 and part 2).**

Two days before the first task – actually, only a day and a half because it was already night time – Harry still had no idea of what it might involve. Hermione had been trying to guess by digging records on past tournaments but there didn't seem to be any pattern, apart from all of them being potentially deadly. As far as he knew, he could only trust the spells he had learnt, stick with them and prey they would be enough.

The bloody tournament had cost him way too much: nearly everybody in the school seemed to avoid looking at him, his best friend (or at least he tried to believe Ron still was it at some point) had developed a grudge against him and, odds were, he wouldn't live long enough to meet his unborn godbrother. _Maybe the kid will be proud if I die heroically,_ he thought grimly.

"You look awfully depressed," he heard Izzy's familiar voice saying behind him. He hadn't even noticed her approaching the table where he was sitting in the common room. "Stop sulking, will you? You'll be okay – remember that when we practice you can stun me before I even blink."

"I doubt they'll have twelve-year-old girls for me to stun as the first task," Harry mumbled, looking down.

Izzy sighed. "Well, I have something here that might cheer you up. It arrived from Dad a few hours ago." She reached for the pocket of her robe and removed a small object, which she put face-down in front of him on the table.

Even face down, Harry immediately recognized it by the shape as one of the POTTER STINKS pins. "If Sirius thinks this is funny, he's quickly losing his mind."

"Turn it around," she told him with a laugh.

"What for? I have them flashed on my face every two hours or less."

He was being way too difficult. "Just do it, would you? Do I look like I'm here to stick needles into your open wounds? Trust me, you'll like it."

Harry looked up at her with an eyebrow rose and she nodded at the pin. Sighing, he gave in and did as she said, immediately snorting. Okay, she'd been right – he really liked it. The messages that flashed on the pin had been completely changed: instead or urging the students to support Cedric instead of him, it simply told them to cheer for Hogwarts; but he mostly laughed because the message 'POTTER STINKS' had been replaced by another, and rather hilarious, one – 'SLYTHERINS REALLY STINK'. "Alright, I judged it too early."

"It's great, isn't it?" Izzy said. "Dad has some sort of spell he'll be using in the day of the task to make the other pins look like this one. "

"It's brilliant, thanks for showing it to me," he said with a grin. "At least now I have something to look forward to in the day of the task…"

Izzy shook her head. "Thank Dad – he was the one who did it."

"Bet you're the one who sent him the pin," Harry countered. "That makes you a decent sister, though I'm the one supposed to be looking after for you as I'm the oldest."

She shrugged. "We can look out for each other and then the two of us can do it for our baby brother… and the ones that will follow."

"I guess we can do that." He chuckled. "Merlin, I really needed a laugh."

She gave him a small smile and it was only then that she noticed a tip of his invisibility cloak sticking out of Harry's bag. "Going somewhere?"

"Yeah. To Hagrid's later. I saw him after dinner and he asked me to come by his hut around midnight," he informed her. He said he had something to show me."

"Do you think it has anything to do with the tournament? Or maybe another one of his pet beasts…" _Maybe a baby troll this time_, she wondered.

"Dunno, guess I'll find out later."

She gave him a pleading look. "Can I go? Please?"

"He told me to go alone, Iz," Harry told her firmly said. "And even if he hadn't, aunt Mia would skin me alive if we were caught."

"Aw, come on!"

"Forget it," he told her. "It's bad enough she has to worry about me getting killed, Izzy."

She groaned. "You used to be more fun when we were kids," she told him before she walked to the sitting area with a pout, where Ginny was entertaining herself by reading a Quidditch magazine with Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, on her lap.

"Harry's sneaking out tonight," Izzy told her, sitting on the sofa. "I wanna go too but he won't let me."

"And that's stopping you?" Ginny asked, looking up from the magazine doubtfully.

"No. But the prospect of Mum ending up knowing might… She'll have kittens if she even suspects I was sneaking around the castle at night."

"And Sirius will throw you a party if you do," her friend pointed out. "I'd say that settles things. He'll probably find a way to deal with your Mum if you get caught."

"But Harry will be taking the map with him for sure," she pointed out. "I should really wait to get him before I go around sneaking but…"

"…you don't feel like waiting," Ginny finished for her. She closed the magazine and threw it aside. "I'm in."

"What?"

"If there are two of us, we may do a better job avoiding the teachers and the prefects. I bet Fred and George can tell us about a few secret passages if we ask them."

"So you think this is a good idea?" Izzy asked.

"Not really. But it sounds like fun. That's good enough for me."

---

Mia considered that, nearly six months into her pregnancy, arranging the nursery might be a good idea. And she also knew that Sirius – the overprotective git – would never let her go near any sort of potentially tiring activity. So, she'd used the little time he'd be spending away from home spending 'guy-time' with Remus to start working on the nursery and bring the mountains of Izzy's and Harry's old baby things from the attic.

It took her and Kreacher, who had insisted on helping, about two hours to take all the stuff down to the room that would be serving as the baby's nursery, which was right by hers and Sirius's.

She looked around the room and smiled. It has been pointed in a very light tone of blue just a few days ago. Mia imagines it probably wouldn't be a good idea having a baby sleeping in a room as red as it had been before the painting.

She absently ran a hand though one of the pieces of the dusty unset cot and felt the memories of past times being brought back… It had been unused for too long. Still, sometimes it felt like it was only yesterday that her babies were still learning walk and to climb the cot's rails.

Mia settled herself in the old rocking chair and reached for one of the boxes that Kreacher had summoned from the attic and opened it. She smiled to herself when she saw what was inside: her daughter's newborn clothes. All so soft, pink and tiny. "I really can't wait to hold a baby again," she murmured to herself.

"Neither can I."

She didn't need to look up to know it was Sirius who had said that. "You're back early."

He took lazy steps in her direction and lowered himself a bit to place a kiss on her cheek. "Moony was tired. Full Moon is tomorrow already," he told her.

"You're going over his place tomorrow to help him."

"Yep," he told her, looking around. "I see you've been busy, you backstabbing wife. You're not supposed to bring all this stuff down alone."

"I could have very well used my wand to do that, you overprotective husband," she replied. "And Kreacher wouldn't let me lift a thing, which makes me wonder why the two of you still are not the best friends in the universe…"

"I have standards," he told her. "The little bastard may be nice to you but he still looks sideways at me."

"You're such a git."

"Proud to be one." He pulled a box closer to the rocking chair and sat on it before looking down at the box his wife had been messing with and, furrowing his brow, he reached for a small pink footie pyjamas inside it. "Wow."

"Wow what?" Mia asked him with a laugh.

"Wow Izzy was this small once," he murmured. "Sounds sort of unbelievable."

"They grow up really fast."

"Yeah," he mumbled.

She leaned down against the back of the chair and started rocking it with a sigh as her chin rested against her hand. "And when you least know, they're taking part in deadly tournaments…"

Sirius put the footie down again. "Mia…"

"It's the truth, Sirius. You know I don't like the idea of him being there and so does he," she stated.

He took a deep breath. He knew it and, well, he wasn't really keen about it either. And it wasn't just that that bothered him about that tournament. "About the task, Mia… I've been thinking and, er, I think maybe you shouldn't go. To see it, I mean."

Mia turned very slowly to him and he just couldn't read her expression. He knew it was bad… maybe angry or sad… offended? Her eyes dug through him like arrows and he gulped.

_Everything was so fine and minute ago_, he thought. _Why did I bring it up?_

"I beg your pardon?" Her voice was barely a whisper… which made it even more lethal.

He opened his mouth to talk but closed it immediately. Better think before he said anything else – he didn't want to dig into the hole further. He gulped once more before he said anything. "I meant this task… it may be though. Maybe watching it will be too much stressing for you with the baby and all."

Her brow furrowed and she got up from the chair. She was clearly pissed off. "What do you think I am? Some sort of incubator? You think because I'm pregnant I can't go support my godson in one of the most dangerous occasions of his life?"

_Oh boy, _he thought. "Maybe we should ask Elizabeth just to be sure it won't be bad for the baby. She's your healer."

"_I _was a healer too," Mia replied. "And I say I'll be fine. The baby won't even notice it I'm there at all. I won't be bothering her with your stupid concerns."

"They're not stupid and she's your best friend. I bet she wouldn't mind at all," he countered, getting up too.

Her face was red with fury. "Sirius… what's wrong with you? Why the hell are you so keen about me not going?!"

"I'm just concerned, that's all!"

"You mean _ridiculously_ concerned, right?"

He sighed – it was hard to catch a break from an hormonal woman like her. "Mia, just listen. I'm kind of new at this. It's like I'm walking in a dark unfamiliar room and I have no idea where I'm supposed to go without breaking anything. So, I've read a few books about, you know, pregnancy stuff and they say the mother shouldn't get too much stress because that can lead to complications."

"Books always overreact it," Mia stated, the anger fading slowly and turning into a more harmless kind of frustration. "Merlin, since when do you care about books, Sirius?"

"Since I have no idea of what to do!"

"Then ask me!" she told him. "Books are good but there are things they don't put in the equation. Do you consider losing two great friends and having the person you love the most in the world sent to prison as stressing? Because I do! And I was pregnant with Izzy when that happened to me! Does it look like it led to any complication? Bad stuff happens with or without stress. It changes from person to person."

He didn't know what to say. She was right… mostly. And he did feel like an arse right now. But he couldn't help worrying about her. It was part of loving her.

Mia reached for his arm with her hand. "I love you for being so protective but how many times do I need to tell you I'll be fine before you believe it? This baby is healthy, I'm healthy. I've been taking my disgusting vitamin potions, eating all sorts of green food I wouldn't even bother to look twice at in regular circumstances. The odds are on my side. And I need to be there for the task – I'll just stay home freaking out if I don't go."

"Can we at least take Elizabeth with us?" he tried. "Just as a way to prevent anything."

She rolled her eyes. "I could hex you for asking that," Mia told him. "But I've already told her to go. She has the whole week off."

"Alright," he said. "That makes me feel a bit easier."

"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled, hitting him playfully in the arm. "Bloody arse. Do you know another good way to prevent complications? Abstinence."

"A… abstinence?" he asked, his eyes open wide. "As in no…"

"Yep, no shagging," she confirmed. That gave her an idea – a brilliant idea. "You know what? Maybe we should do just that. Merlin knows how risky it might be for the baby…"

"What?! No!" he said in horror. "Elizabeth said we still had a few months before we had to stop!"

Mia shrugged. "It wouldn't hurt to be careful."

"That's just…" He stopped talking and saw her biting her lip to keep herself from grinning. "Oh, you're mocking me. You're just trying to prove the damn point! Well, congratulations, you did it."

Mia smiled and kissed his cheek. "I knew it would work. My poor suffering husband."

"Sure, sure, you heartless woman." He brushed her off mockingly. "Now give me something to do to help you setting the room."

His wife laughed. "You can start by assembling the bassinet," she told him, nodding at it. "That one's going to out room for the first few months."

He nodded. "Okay. I can do that. Does that thing have an instruction manual?"

Mia shook her head. "Ask Kreacher. He was the one who took everything out of the box. But, odds are, it's long gone. That bassinet used to belong to Izzy once upon a time. But you can just do it by waving your wand, you know? Wave it a few times and, poof, bassinet assembled."

"And what's the fun in that?" he replied in indignation. "If Muggles can do it, I can do it too."

"Well, knock yourself out," she told him with a chuckle. "I'm going to the kitchen – the baby wants some fudge."

She didn't take more than ten minutes down there and, when she got back, she found Sirius reading the instructions manual, which didn't seem to be lost after all, with a very puzzled look on his face.

"What's a hex key? Am I supposed to… hex the screws into the pieces? That's sort of odd, isn't it?"

"No, I think it's some sort of screwdriver, Sirius," she replied, making her way back to the rocking chair. "Just give up and use the wand or the kid will be born and have nowhere to sleep."

"Are you kidding me? This thing is not going to beat me. Tomorrow morning I'll go find out what this triple square thing is and get one," he stated, sinking onto the chair next to hers.

Mia snorted. "You men have too much pride for your own good."

"Comes with the package, love."

"Along with the over protectiveness, need to break the rules, eternal childhood and pigheadedness," she added with a smile. "How could I ever complain?"

"You're forgetting the adoration and eternal love for you. Not to mention other facts in a more private basis… other facts that _only you_ know about."

She chuckled on the chair. "You always find a way to get there, don't you?"

"It's an art, really," he told her. "You can't praise me for my innate talent to lead every conversation to the sheets."

"Well, let's forget about the innate talent and get to the important business. As you're not able to start setting the bassinet due to your _stubbornness_," she started, "I thought we could start talking about names for the baby in the meanwhile."

Sirius shrugged. "I'm fine with anything except astronomy-related names."

"Oh, so it's alright if I call him, let's say, Adalfried or Godebert?" Mia said, faking a serious voice.

Sirius made a face. "Er… alright, maybe not _anything_," he concluded. "You wouldn't do that, would you?"

She snorted. "Of course not! I love my baby. I don't want him to be smacked around all his life because we picked a weird name for him. Sirius Black Jr is also out of question – I only want one Sirius in this house."

"I completely agree," he said with a nod. "Imagine the confusion there would be if you yelled at the kid and I thought you were yelling at me."

"More likely the other way around," she told him with a wink. "So, do you have any name in mind?"

He shrugged. "Not really. I was sort of imagining we'd decide on a name when he was born," Sirius admitted. "See if he looks like a Herbert or an Elmer." He saw her frown at him. "I was kidding about the names."

"You'd better be," Mia warned him, rubbing her bump protectively. "But anyway, that's what I did with Izzy. I only decided on her name when I held her for the first time. I guess doing it again wouldn't be so bad… But I sort of had my mind set on a middle name."

"What?"

"Gabriel," she told him. "After my birth father. Sometimes I find myself thinking how, even though I never knew he was my father when he was alive and we knew each other for barely a year, he did a better work than Phillip Davis ever did."

Sirius smiled. "He was always watching your back during the battles. He loved you, Mia. It doesn't matter if he knew you for a year or all your life. You were his child." He could relate. Merlin knew that, even though he'd only know he had a daughter for half a year, he already loved Izzy more than life.

Mia smiled – she hates to think she'd never gotten a chance to know him as a father. "I think Lulu will be touched. She never got over him."

"So, it's settled," Sirius said, reaching to touch Mia's bump. "You'll be something Gabriel Black."

Mia snorted. "Something. That's a horrible thing to call him."

"Then he'll be blank Gabriel Black. Note that the 'blank' part will be filled latter, kid," he said, talking directly to the bump.

His wife put her hand over his. "We love you blank Gabriel Black," she declared with a laugh before looking at Sirius. "Let's just stick with calling him baby or kid for now. Otherwise it's weird."

"Yeah, that would be a better idea," he agreed.

**A/N2: Let's start by saying that this chapter was huge - 14 pages huge (I'm getting strangelly hooked to writing huge chapters) - thus I madce two out of it. The next one still needs a few editing and brushing up but appart from that, I can safely say it's nearly done. So, it's up to you: would you rather I posted the next one sooned and then wait longer for the next one (say, a week because chapter 29 is a handfull with the whole task thing and I have some academic responsabilities to attend - the wonderful freshman initiation :]) or do you want me to do it at my usual pace (a chapter every five days aproximately)? Let me know - I'll have to stick with the majority's wish. **

**Hope you liked this hal-chapter. It was pretty fun to write. There will be a few amusing scenes in the next one. Review!**


	28. Sneaking Out

Hiding on the girl's stairwell, Izzy and Ginny, along with the twins on their own stairwell, watched as Harry slipped under his invisibility cloak and through the portrait hole just a few minutes before midnight.

"Alright," Fred whispered as he came out of his and George's hiding place, "you give him a few minutes and then go too."

"And take the secret passage – it will lead you right to the ground floor," George finished.

"You know, maybe Hagrid just wants to show him his, I dunno, new tea set or something," Izzy suggested. "Maybe it has nothing to do with the tournament and we're sneaking out for nothing."

Ginny shrugged. "Could be. But I doubt he'd bother doing that at _midnight_. Besides, it was _your _idea."

"And even if it turns out not to be about the tournament," George started, "it should something really wicked to see – like a newborn chimera."

"Or a banshee," Fred added dreamily. "Sneaking out is _never_ for nothing. If not anything else, it's worth the thrill."

"Are you the daughter of a marauder or not?" George enquired.

She sighed, nodding. "Merlin, I wish there were copies of the map," Izzy murmured. "If we get caught, Mom will skin me."

George shrugged. "Don't worry, you're not alone. Our mom would skin Gin-Gin too. We'll be happy to stay there and watch so the two of you don't feel too lonely."

"Thanks," his sister said sarcastically. "How considerate of you."

"We are just being realistic, little sister," Fred told her. "Now get lost. You can't tail somebody if you're a mile behind them."

Izzy sighed. "Right. Wish us luck."

"It's not about luck, it's a about skill," one of the twins, Izzy wasn't sure which because her back was already turned back to them, said.

She didn't respond and just followed Ginny to the portrait hole and slipped through it, ending up on the seventh floor hallway. It was almost completely dark out there except for a few torches and nobody seemed to be patrolling it. Having to sneak around the prefects was one less thing they had to worry about. They were as silent as it was humanely possible as they made their way to the gargoyle by the Arithmacy classroom.

Ginny slipped her hand through a hole on the gargoyle's side and pulled a hidden lever that rested in it. She pulled her hand out and saw the gargoyle raising about three feet over the ground, revealing a dark hole under it with a ladder for them to descend.

They looked around one more time to check if someone was watching before entering the hole. The entrance over them close just as soon as the two of them reached the bottom of the ladder and what revealed itself to be a small chamber that served as the entrance to a very cramped spiral staircase.

"Well, this looks… cozy," Izzy murmured, as she looked down at the staircase. That was supposed to go all the way down to the ground floor – a thrilling trip ahead of them.

"You're not claustrophobic, are you?" Ginny asked her in alarm.

"No, but I doubt anyone would feel comfortable going down these stairs."

She took a deep breath before starting her way down. The stairs were not illuminated and it was only the light coming out hers and Ginny's wands that kept them from walking in complete darkness. The steps were awfully narrow and sometimes they could barely put half the length of their feet on them. Izzy laid her palm against the wall as she walked as if that would keep her from falling.

There were steps, steps and more steps – it felt endless and, the more she went down, the thicker the air felt as she breathed. Eventually, Izzy started wondering if the stairs were leading to the centre of the planet instead of the ground floor. It was nearly ten minutes after they had reached the stairs that Izzy and Ginny finally saw themselves in another chamber similar to the one at the entrance with a ladder in the end of it.

They quickly reached for it and climbed up, pulling a lever on the wall that opened a hole over them leading to a gargoyle similar to the one that served as the entrance. When they came out, they saw themselves in the end of an empty hallway that they didn't recognize at first. They walked slowly through the length of it, being scolded by several portraits that were trying to sleep and, eventually, Izzy noticed they were passing by a familiar portrait of a fruit bowl.

"This is the kitchens' hallway," Izzy told Ginny, pointing at the portrait. "Dad brought me here the other day – the portrait serves as an entrance. I think that if we keep walking in this direction, we'll reach the entrance hall in no time."

"You'd better be right. I don't want to end up landing right outnside of Filch's office or something," Ginny whispered.

Izzy chuckled as they kept walking and, less than a minute later, they saw themselves in front of a door. She reached for the handle and opened it but it literally ran into somebody and Izzy immediately regretted having sneaked out at all. Right in front of them was Severus Snape scowling. His eyes narrowed at them.

"And what do we have here?" he said, his voice heavy, paused and chilling. "Students out of bed after curfew and, surprise, surprise, Black's pride and joy among them."

Izzy's throat seemed to have gained a few dozens of pounds all of a sudden and she felt her blood freezing inside her own veins. Her mother would kill her… Oh boy, she'd be scrubbing plates the whole Christmas Break and maybe Easter too. "Professor, we were just…"

"Just what? Please, amuse me with a supposedly good reason for being out of your dorm after curfew!"

"We were coming back from the kitchens," Ginny said quickly. It was more likely Snape would by it from her than from Izzy, whose father he hated. "I am so sorry, professor, we didn't think. I was feeling a bit sick at dinner and didn't eat much, so I got hungry after I went to bed and thought I might go get something from the elves. Izzy didn't want me wondering around the castle by myself at night because I could run into Peeves or something, so she came too."

"You shouldn't be wondering around the corridors _at all_, Weasley. There is a curfew for a reason," he told her in a hard tone. "Peeves is the least of your worries in this castle at night!"

"We're sorry Professor. We really didn't think. It's completely my fault. Izzy was just trying to help."

Snape's face remained expressionless. Weasley was good but not _that _good. He was pretty sure they weren't coming back from any place at all, much less the _kitchen _– they were going somewhere. Ginny Weasley was lying. Lying to cover for her friend… like he remembered several years before Lily Evans lying to cover her friend's slacking during a potions class. Ironically, that friend was this one's own mother. Redhead, small and loyal to her friends. Seemed like a sick joke made by fate. And somehow, to his own annoyance, because of it he couldn't bring himself to give them a harsher lecture. It would feel like he was hurting _her_ all over again.

"The two of go to bed!," he sneered. "_Now!_ I'm too busy to waste time lecturing and giving detention to two silly girls. Five points from Gryffindor each. Don't let me hear of you making a detour or, in Merlin's name, you'll forget how not having detention feels like! Now get out of my sight!"

They were, in a word, stunned. But didn't make them hesitate on getting the hell out of there. Izzy couldn't help wondering what on Earth had gotten into Snape. That had been the perfect opportunity for him to get them into a massive deal of trouble. Not even McGonagall would spare them. He had to be mad for letting them slip.

"Merlin, I must be good," Ginny mumbled as soon as they reached their common room, about ten minutes later. Fred and George were nowhere to be seen now. "I didn't actually think I'd be able to lie our way out of it. I must be really good!"

"Or maybe he just hit his head somewhere. Or is possessed," Izzy suggested. Because, even if Snape had believed Ginny, he'd never let them off the hook like _that_.

Ginny sighed. "That sounds more like it. It was too easy, wasn't it?"

"Way too easy."

---

It was only in the following that they ran into the twins again when they were on their way to breakfast.

"Hey, how did it go last night? What did Hagrid want from Harry?" Fred asked them as he and George joined them walking down to the Great Hall."

Izzy shrugged. "We have no idea."

"Snape caught us before we got to Harry," Ginny told her brothers.

"He did? How come we haven't heard of it already?"

George mumbled. "Well, how many weeks of detention?"

They hesitated in responding – what if someone else heard it? That might give Snape second thoughts. Izzy looked around and then nodded at a broom cupboard right by the Great Hall's door. "Get in there," she told them.

They raised an eyebrow but proceeded in doing it and all four of them, very cramped, stood inside the broom cupboard.

"What's with all the secrecy? Was it that bad?" Fred inquired. "Merlin, don't tell me you reached the two months of detention barrier."

"Not even the two of us managed to do that."

Izzy shook her head. "That's the thing. We didn't get detention. He let us go," Izzy whispered to them.

George snorted. "What?! That's impossible. Really, how many weeks? We won't laugh or make fun of you…much. It was your first time sneaking out, after all."

"She's telling the truth," Ginny confirmed. "He didn't give us _any_ detention. It was really odd. Go ask him if you want – maybe he'll give _you._"

At first, the twins just stared at them. Then their faces slowly turned to each other. "Oh Merlin," they echoed before looking at the girls again.

"We have negative house points now, haven't we?" Fred asked them.

"How many did he take?" George continued. "Say it quick with no anaesthesia. We'll try not to pass out."

"Five each," Izzy told them. For a moment, she thought their eyes might jump out of their heads because they were so openly staring.

"Five hundred? Five thousand?"

She shook her head. "Just five points each," she said.

"But… but ten points total?! That's half he takes from someone who screws up brewing a potion!" George pointed out.

"Somebody floo St. Mungo's. Snape's going to the loony bin," his brother added loudly.

George nodded thoughtfully. "It has to be something degenerative."

"Next thing we know he'll be shaking hands with Sirius… and taking Harry under his wing," Fred illustrated.

"Was there any visible brain matter leaking out of his ears?"

"Oh, that's just disgusting, George!" Izzy said, her face crumbling in repulsion.

"Maybe he was just tired," Ginny offered. "He _looked_ tired, now that I think of it."

That gave Fred an idea. "Maybe he was sleepwalking and thought you were, I dunno, Pansy Parkinson and some other Slytherin. He might take that few points from them."

Izzy shook her head. "He called me 'Black's pride and joy'. I doubt he'd say that about any Slytherin."

"Maybe we're just luckier than you are," Ginny offered.

Fred snorted. "As if…"

"Well, we saw a side of Snape you'll probably never see," Izzy pointed out. "But I don't think we should advertise this event much. It may end up reaching Mum and, detention or not, it's best not to make her angry these days."

"But you'll tell your dad, right? Snape is his arch-enemy. Can we be there when you do?" George inquired.

"Sure," Izzy said as she opened the door of the broom cupboard and exited it. Outside, a group of first-year Hufflepuffs stopped walking and stared at the four of them leaving the broom cupboard. Izzy could only guess what they were imagining…

Fred rolled his eyes. "What are you looking at, midgets?"

"Merlin, can't two blokes snog their kid sister and her friend in a broom cupboard in peace? Never heard of inbreeding?" George asked the kids faking a serious tone that caused them to turn slightly green. "Scram," he said and they immediately sped away.

"He's joking," Ginny tried to say but they already too far away to hear. She turned to her brother and glared. "You'll give us some fame…"

"Aw, it was funny traumatizing a few first years," Fred said. "In fact, why don't you two go ahead and have breakfast and we'll stay here doing it to some more."

Ginny turned around shaking her head.

"Be gentle. Remember they're the adults of tomorrow," Izzy joked, making them laugh before following her friend.

They made their way to the Gryffindor table and noticed Harry was already there with Hermione, the two of them discussing something in hushed tones. From a few feet away, Ron was watching them with a cold look attempting to hide the concern on his face.

Is it me or the two of you look awfully grim?" Izzy asked.

Harry silently urged her and the other three to come closer. "It's dragons," he whispered to them, his face blank. "I think my task is to slay a dragon."

---

Watching her husband assemble a bassinet without magic was, without a doubt, a lot more amusing than seeing a marathon of Muggle comedies.

In his frustration, Sirius would curse – in rather creative ways –, kick what was supposed to be a bassinet and curse some more. Then, he'd scratch his head, read the instruction manual, badmouth Muggle technology and then praise the 'few' men who'd ever managed to succeed in a assembling a bassinet like that one. And, through the whole process, Mia had to admit he looked incredibly…hot. He'd always tended to look extremely arousing whenever he was feeling frustrated but today he was reaching a limit (most likely induced by her own hormones)...

At some point, Mia heard footsteps, human footsteps, coming from behind her and Lulu joined her side. "Merlin's left testicle, is that a bassinet or a medieval torture device?"

"At this rate, I'm not sure," Mia admitted. "But I'm more inclined to the medieval thing." She looked her husband's… work of art. It looked like a death trap. Somehow, the structure was standing on only three legs but she doubted it would remain that way if anything with more than five pounds was laid on it. "How did you get in?"

"Kreacher," she simply said. "How long has he been on this?"

"He got up at eight to go get the bloody screwdriver and started by nine." Mia checked her watch. "It's nearly noon, so you make the math. He just won't give up."

"Of course he won't," her mother said with a chuckle. "That's men for you. If they let themselves be beaten by a bunch of tools, they feel like they lost an inch of their lower equipment, if you know what I mean. Eventually, when the things hits their pride, the mentioned equipment becomes their primary brain and they just regress to caveman-mode."

Mia gritted her teeth. "Don't go there, for Merlin's sake," she begged, whispering furiously. "You're my mother, you're not supposed refer about my husband's… equipment. It's wrong in so many ways!"

"I was talking in a general sense," Lulu countered. Then, she raised her voice so Sirius would hear the next part. "It's your own fault I mentioned it at all. You had to pick a man that can't even handle assembling a crib the Muggle way. He was never good enough for you," she joked, trying to channel the perfect mother-in-law nightmare.

Sirius looked up at her and glared. "You think you're funny, don't you? You try to set this thing up and owl me when you finish. Muggles are mental if they think normal people can do this."

"Well, I consider myself a normal person and I did it," Lulu pointed out. "And the Muggle way."

He raised an eyebrow. There was just no way… "You're yanking my wand."

"She really is not," Mia said casually.

"I was pretty bored one afternoon, so I did it to pass time," Lulu explained. "See, my grandfather was a Muggle and one of those do-it-yourself sorts of blokes – the man could build anything. Anyway, you probably can imagine I wasn't one of those girls who played with dolls for fun, so I spent most of my time doing stuff in his workshop when I was a kid." She gave him a mocking smile. "Want me to show you how you do it?"

He narrowed his eyes. "I'll ask if I need it, thanks."

Mia coughed. "Well, why don't you take a break from what you're doing and we tell Lulu about our decision from last night?"

Sirius looked at her in confusion – his brain was too fuzzy with his rage against the bassinet. "What decis…" He interrupted himself when he remembered it. "Oh right," Sirius mumbled, sitting down on the rocking chair. "That one."

"Well, then hurry up, the two of you," Lulu warned them. "I just dropped by to say 'hi' – some people work for a living, you know? I'm supposed to be in the book shop by noon."

"Hold your horses, woman," Mia said. "I just wanted to say that last night Sirius and I talked about names for the baby and we decided on a middle name." She paused for a few seconds. "Gabriel."

Lulu didn't say anything at first. That was, without a doubt, unexpected for her. And, at the same time it made her mind travel back to the still open grieving wound in her heard, Mia's action made her feel… peaceful. "He…hum… he'd be happy with it," Lulu told her. "Gabe would be proud to know you're giving his name to your kid." _His grandson, _she thought.

"What about you?" Mia inquired. "Are you happy with it?"

She sighed. "You know I am. Well, it was good seeing you but I really should go." Lulu turned around to leave.

"Wait," Mia said, making her look back. "You said you named me. Before you and him gave me away. I was wondering what…"

"Kathleen," Lulu responded before she finished. "Kathleen Graham McKinnon. Your grandmother Margaret – she was the one who named you Amelia, not Susan and Phillip – she kept the name as your middle name."

"Oh," she mumbled. "Alright. Thanks, Lu."

"You're welcome," Lulu replied before leaving the room.

Sirius raised an eyebrow, leaning against the back of the chair after she left. "I think this is the first time I saw Lulu acting awkwardly. Weird…"

Mia sighed, approaching him and sitting on his lap. "It's because we mentioned Gabriel. I told you she'd never gotten over him dying."

He shook his head, running his hands through her long hair. "That didn't look like just that. It seemed to me… she didn't just not get over him dying, Mia. The way her eyes changed when you said his name… when she talked about him…"

"She's still in love with him," Mia finished for him. "She never really stopped."

"Yeah," he said. "It just makes me wonder… how can she live with that? How can she still be the same Lulu we always knew and be in love with a dead guy?

"She just… she's the strongest woman I've ever met. And she became that Lulu without him," Mia explained. "She never had the chance to…" she searcher for the right words in her head, "become someone _with him_. So I guess she just remained the same. I'd never be able to do that. If I lost you…"

"Don't say it," he told her, shaking his head. "Please don't say it. I don't want to think of a world where one of us is gone."

She sighed and leaned closer to him. "I became someone with you. I just wanted you to know that. I'm not the person I was a year ago. And that person was not the one who lived with you before I had to leave. I'm Mia when you're here. When you're not, I'm just a shadow of who I should be."

He brushed a strand of her hair from her face and kissed her lips chastely. "Yeah, that makes two of us."

**A/N: Well, here is the second part onf the abnormally large chapter (don't expect much as big as this one). The task is next chapter and then I'll jump a little ahead of time. Hope you liked it - tell me what you think of it! Review!**


	29. First Task

The day of the first task started out rainy, which perfectly reflected Mia's mood that morning and, even though the weather had improved by the time she and Sirius arrived to Hogwarts, around one in the afternoon, her foul mood had grown into a tingling frustration.

Hagrid was the first one to talk to them in the school just as soon they'd gotten past Filch at the gates. He gave them a sympathetic smile right in the moment he saw them. "I'm cheerin' fer Harry. He'll get past those dra...," he told them. "Er... he told yeh about 'em, didn' he?"

"Yes, he did," Mia said and gave him a small smile. "Thanks for showing them to him, Hagrid."

"Yeah, that gave him time to come up with a plan," Sirius added. Harry had informed them in the previous night via two-way-mirror that Moody had hinted him with a way for him to go through the task. His godson hadn't gotten into specifics about it but he'd said that if any plan would work, that had to be the one.

Hagrid shook his head. "Oh, don' thank me. It was the least I could do. Tha' boy is way too good to end up as a piece o' dragon-made coal..." He stopped himself. "Er, sorry. I jus' don' think before I say things."

Mia sighed. That wouldn't be the first time that thought had come through her head. "It's okay. Don't worry about it, Hagrid."

The large man apologized again before excusing himself, saying he needed to go help bringing the first dragon to the Quidditch pitch.

Sirius reached for his wife's hand and gave her a small smile as they started walking together closer to the castle. "He won't become a piece of coal," Sirius told her, comforting her for the millionth time. "He's smarter than to put himself right in front of the dragon's mouth. He'll be just fine."

She nodded. "I want to believe that. I trying the best I can. It just… frustrates me. I feel so useless in all this. It's not supposed to be this difficult keeping your kids away from danger. Seems like the more I try, the more danger happens and it is not his fault. Keeps me wondering if Lily and James would make a better job…"

"How?" Sirius asked. "Harry's not the one causing this. You said it yourself. What would Lily and James do? Keep him chained in the basement? I don't think so. Maybe our job, as it is nearly impossible to keep him out of danger, is to make sure he's ready to face it when it comes which, by the way, is what we've been doing ever since he was selected to the tournament."

His wife sighed. "It's not fair he doesn't get to just be a kid like Izzy does."

"He was just a kid, a happy, loved kid, until he was eleven thanks to you, which is more than any of us can say," Sirius told her. He stopped walking and turned to face her. "We did all we could to prepare him for this task: sent him books, told him about spells far advanced for his age, supported him, believed him… Now it's in his hands." He kissed her forehead before putting his hands on the sides of her bump. "Besides, think of what a piece of cake this kid will be, with all the experience you get from trying to keep Harry out of trouble."

She chuckled. "Incredible how you're so good with words. Maybe you should become a writer or a reporter."

"And have Rita Skeeter as a co-worker? No thanks," he told her with a laugh. He looked for a moment over his wife's shoulder and groaned when he saw who was approaching. Of all people in the world…

"What?" she asked, turning around too. "Oh, for Merlin's sake." Lucius Malfoy was walking in their direction along with his wife, and Sirius's cousin, Narcissa.

"Look who we have here, dear. Your cousin Sirius and his wife," they heard Lucius telling his wife out loud as they approached. "We're so looking forward to see your godson in the task – Minister Fudge made sure we were invited to attend. Nice of him, isn't it? We brought a large box of tissues just in case. Do you want to take it now or would you rather we held it for until Potter's sent to St. Mungo's on fire?"

Sirius gave them a clearly fake smile. "What an unpleasant surprise to see you." The pleasantness of his voice contrasted with his words. "Funny how, no matter how long I spend without laying my eyes on you, it always feels like it is too soon. Oh, and you can keep the box of tissues and then Cissy can use it when the Dragon realizes you may taste a little better than Harry does. See, I heard dragons just _love _other reptiles."

"Well, Azkaban doesn't seem to have changed your sense of humour at all, Sirius," Narcissa replied. "Tell me, did they have a comedy club in there? The Dementors must be a splendid audience."

"Nah, not so much. Bellatrix, on the other hand, was a blast," he told his cousin, mimicking her pleasant tone. "You wouldn't believe the way she laughed. It almost sounded like she was out of her mind. She and many of your friends are having the times of their lives in there." He turned to Lucius. "Pity you had to pass on joining them. It would make one hell of a party."

"I could say just the same about you. Pity you had to leave…" Lucius then turned to Mia with a sneering smile. "And what a pleasure to meet the new Mrs. Black. You were Amelia Davis, right? I heard about what happened to your parents during the war… such an unfortunate thing."

Mia returned the smile. "I'm sure it broke your heart in pieces. Surely more than it broke mine."

"It was a… terrible shock," he said before looking at Mia's bump and then turning to Sirius again. "I see you're expanding the family too. Just imagine adding another member to the family. Just look at it so far: a disinherited former fugitive, a blood-traitor wife and a bastard daughter. What an honour to the noble Black family. Join an orphaned half-blood godson to the mix and you have one big happy family."

Sirius snorted. "If you call than an insult, Malfoy, I can understand why you always look like someone shoved a broomstick up your arse."

Narcissa glared. "Auntie Walburga was right. You were, and still are, nothing less than a good-for-nothing disrespectful brat in a grown-up's body. You're a shame to the honour of the name Black."

"It's _my_ name now, Cissy," he countered. "And you can bet I'm cleaning every bit of pureblood supremacy filth – the one that you call _honour_ – our dear ancestors covered it with for centuries. If that shames you, well, cheers to me." He smiled at the sight of his cousin's red, angry face. "And I think this was more than enough verbal bashing for a day."

Saying that, he circled Mia with his arm and turned their backs to them, walking away without another word. He could only imagine how angry they must look.

"Well, if your mother was nearly as 'nice' as your cousin is, I'm glad I never go to meet her," Mia told him.

Sirius snorted. "My mother? Please, Cissy is an amateur compared to what she was. Bella might be closer." He sighed. "Makes me wonder how I didn't turn out like the rest of them."

Mia placed a kiss on his cheek. "Whatever caused it, I'm very glad you didn't. Because there was no way I'd have married you if you were even slightly like Narcissa. Now, how about we go look for Harry and wish him good luck?"

He smiled. "That's a wonderful idea."

---

They ran into McGonagall a few minutes later, who took them to the champion's tent in order to see Harry.

"We've got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand," the old professor informed them on their way to the tent. "Dumbledore didn't cut in measures to make sure that ever champion is as safe as the rules of the tournament allow."

"And how much do the tournament rules allow?" Mia asked her just as they reached the tent.

McGonagall sighed. "Not much. But I'd say Potter is in less danger in it than he has been during the… adventures he tends to get himself into by the end of every school year."

Sirius chuckled. "That's probably saying a lot."

"It is," the professor told him. "Well, go on in. I'm afraid you haven't more than a few minutes with him as only the champions and the judges are allowed in the tent after the task starts. I'll be waiting for you out here to escort you back to the stadium."

Mia nodded and went in, followed by Sirius. The tent was rather large – clearly magically enlarged inside – and illuminated. It seemed there was a resting area for each champion that could be surrounded by a curtain, each with a comfortable-looking lounge chair, a table and a coat hanger.

Fleur was lounging in her own area and her usually flawless face looked tense and… greenish, while Cedric just paced and Krum stood in a hard posture, looking down at his feet. Harry as sitting in his resting area but got up in the moment he saw them coming in.

His godmother took long steps in his direction and enveloped him in a quick hug before taking a seat by his side. "How are you feeling?"

"Kind of sick," Harry replied shortly.

"Sick but ready?" Sirius asked.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Is that even possible?"

He shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? So, did they tell you more about the task?"

His godson nodded. "A dragon was sorted for each champion – I got the Horntail." He gulped when he said that. "Anyway, the dragon will be guarding a nest where there is a golden egg. The task is to get the egg and, well, not be killed by the dragon doing it."

"And that plan you told us about. Will it work in this case?" Mia inquired.

"If I'm fast enough, it might," he said. "See, it's related to Quidditch."

"Quidditch?!" Mixing Quidditch with dragons made no sense at all to Mia. But then again, she couldn't play the game even if her life depended on it…

"Well, technically flying. I'm supposed to… summon my firebolt and use it on the task. Because flying is my strength. This will be sort of like a… weird Quidditch game. Instead of the snitch there's the egg, which is easier to see and doesn't fly around and instead of the opposite team…"

"…there's a dragon who breathes fire," Mia finished for him. "Who in Merlin's name made up a tournament like this?"

"Definitely a person who wasn't planning to compete," Sirius pointed out. "Now, show us the summoning charm, Harry." He thought of something for Harry to summon – he wouldn't be seeing the firebolt, so the best would be to have him summoning something he couldn't see. "Summon my two-way mirror."

Harry reached for his wand and pointed it at the Sirius. "_Accio Mirror_," he said. Like it was being pulled by a magnet, the mirror flied from Sirius's pocket to his hands in a matter of seconds and he handed it back to his godfather.

"Nice," Sirius said with a grin. "Let me guess, Hermione had you training it for days."

"Yep."

Suddenly, Crouch entered the room saying it was time for the tournament to start and it was their cue to leave.

Mia sighed before getting up. "I don't think you can get ready than you already are, Harry. Just… do your best. We'll be watching. Don't get hurt and especially don't get killed."

"Or else she'll ground you," Sirius added with a chuckle. "You know your godmother. She'll find a way to bring you back just to do that."

Harry laughed nervously, his green tinge disappearing slowly.

---

Elizabeth was waiting for them by McGonagall's side when they came out of the tent and was escorted with them to the stadium.

The deputy-headmistress led them, under Dumbledore's orders, to the teachers' seats, which were right across from the ministry's ones. Even at a distance, Sirius could see the sneering look in Malfoy's face as he sat by Fudge's side. At the same time, he also noticed his daughter waving down from the student's stands, where she stood with who he assumed to be Ginny and Luna.

The task started with Cedric's turn, whose egg was being guarded by the by the Swedish Short-Snout, while Ludo Bagman commented the game from what used to be the Quidditch field's entrance. It took Cedric about fifteen minutes to get the egg, only ending up with some mild burns on the side of his face.

Though it had been rather scary, the fact that Cedric had done it so… smoothly slightly eased Mia's worry. She looked at Sirius for a moment, only to see that he looked rather entertained so far. She imagined he should be labelling the Hufflepuff's facet as 'wicked'. She couldn't really blame him for that… It had really been impressive.

On the other hand, when she turned to Elizabeth, Mia noticed she seemed to be glaring down at Ludo, even though he probably couldn't see it at all.

"What's wrong?" she whispered.

The blonde nodded at Ludo. "That _idiot_ is under the Goblins' radar again for owing them money_,_" she hissed. "Can you believe it? My father has a friend in Gringotts who heard it and told me. Ludo says he has it 'all under control' but I know it's bogus. He'll get himself into one hell of a trouble because of this. I know he will. And then I'm the one who had to explain our kids why Daddy's being shipped to prison or why he's being cornered by goblins every other week."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is there… something I can do?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "He got himself into that mess, he needs to come out on his own. But that doesn't mean I don't get to be angry at him. He should learn from his own mistakes – he should have already."

"Some people just never do," Mia told her.

"Well, it really sucks that he's one of them."

She stopped talking when Fleur Delacour entered the field for her own turn. To everyone's surprise, she was even faster than Cedric had been, having the golden egg about ten minutes after she'd entered the field and ending up with no injury whatsoever apart from a burned skirt that left many of the male students with their mouths hanging open. Krum followed and, as expected, beat both Fleur and Cedric in time after blinding the dragon with a conjunctivitis charm.

Mia's hand reached for Sirius's right after Krum was done – Harry would be next. Sirius pulled her closer and she rested against his side. She saw as the dragon keepers, Charlie Weasley among them, subdued the Chinese Fireball and got it out of field, only to bring the Hungarian Horntail in. Just looking at the dragon made Mia shudder.

"Merlin and Morgana, they saved the tamest-looking one for Harry…" Sirius said, sarcasm all over her voice.

"Vicious little thing," Mia whispered, gulping.

Harry entered the field seconds later, looking around in intimidation. His stare landed on the Horntail and Mia could almost feel him shudder despite the distance. Then, he raised his wand and, even though she couldn't hear it, Mia knew he was summoning his broomstick. The short time Harry waited for the firebolt to come, staying completely still so the Horntail wouldn't see him as a menace, felt like hours. Behind her, Mia heard Hagrid asking someone if Harry was frozen in shock.

"Look," Sirius whispered in her ear, pointing at something black moving against the blue sky. "It's the firebolt."

Mia sighed in relief, watching the broomstick flying very fast in her godson's direction and stopping by his side, floating in mid-air as if it was waiting for him to climb. Behind her, Flitwich was murmuring something about giving Harry a few house points for using such an effective summoning charm. And when Harry climbed over the broom and left the ground, everything changed. Anyone could tell by the way he flied that the fear that had been stamped in his face before was gone.

"_Amazing. Just amazing!_" Ludo Bagman was saying in his commentary. "_Harry Potter, against all odds, is not only competing in this task but also giving us quite a flying show! Now, who would have thought of this?_"

Harry dived dangerously close to the Horntail, who refused to leave the eggs' nest, and, just as the it was about to send him a jet of fire, he pulled out, dodging the fire as if it was nothing more than a Bludger.

Mia had been prepared to cry, to yell, to bite her nails… She hadn't, however, been prepared to laugh. "I can't believe this. He's _having fun_ with all this."

Sirius nodded. "It's like a game to him!"

"What Quidditch position does he play?" Elizabeth asked, looking at him flying in amazement.

"Seeker," Sirius replied. "Fast like a bullet, isn't he?"

Elizabeth was about to agree but wasn't able to as Mia let out a worried 'Oh Merlin!'. Harry had been hit by the dragon's horned tail but just very slightly. Luckily for him, it didn't seem to have left more than a cut on his shoulder caused by he one of the horns. "He's fine," she told Mia. "Look, he hasn't even bothered to look at his shoulder. He's okay."

"I know, I know," Mia said, nodding. "He dodged it fast enough."

She saw as Harry flew higher, high enough for the tail to be unable to reach him, and dodged the jets of fire again and again. He was trying to convince the dragon to leave the nest, to go up there after him so he could get past it and reach the eggs. And the dragon did. Just as its paws lifted from the ground, Harry sped away, diving in the nest's direction and, next thing everyone knew, he was holding the egg.

Mia was tugging Sirius's arm and pulling him off of his seat just as Harry landed. "Come on! We need to get down there. You too, Elizabeth!"

"You go ahead," she told them with a smile. "I'll meet you down there when everyone else is out. I'd rather avoid the mobs."

"Don't take too long," Mia said before heading out.

Sirius chuckled as he followed her out of the stands. "I told you he'd been fine. Hell, Harry was more than fine. I'll be damned if the kid doesn't get the first place in this thing."

"I'm just happy he's okay," Mia told him. "Never mind his score."

It took them several minutes to reach the small white infirmary tent that was set right outside of the teacher's entrance to the pitch, due to the moving mobs. It took Hagrid stepping in and pulling everyone out of the way, to let them pass.

Inside, Harry was sitting on a wooden stool, his shoulder's skin a little reddish but already healed, talking to a weepy Hermione and, to their surprise, Ron too.

"What did we miss?" Sirius asked them.

"Harry and Ron made up," Hermione said, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her shirt sleeve. "Took the long enough. Prats!"

Mia smiled. "Boys tend to be prats at that age." She nodded at Sirius. "This one was no exception."

"Hey!" Sirius protested. "I was not that bad."

"Worse," Mia said.

"I'll pretend you didn't just say that," he told her before turning to Harry. "You were bloody brilliant out there, kid. You fly even better than your father did. James would be proud."

"Really?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Absolutely!"

Mia nodded. "You did really great, Harry. Even I, who can't get the point of Quidditch, found it amazing. But how's your shoulder? You gave me quite a scare with that one."

Harry moved it just to show her it was okay. "It's good as new. Madam Pomfrey healed the cut right away."

"That's good. Well, I guess I'll have to give you more credit next time, Harry," Mia admitted with a sigh. "It's hard to see that, all of a sudden, your kids can get out of sticky situations by themselves. Too bad they just can't learn to keep their rooms clean without being told at the same pace."

"Who does?" Ron mumbled, which earned him an elbow hitting ribs, courtesy of Hermione.

"Well, that only shows I know how to organize my priorities," Harry told his godmother. "What's more important? Staying alive or cleaning my room?"

"Little smartarse, aren't you?" Mia asked him, narrowing her eyes.

Sirius grinned. "There, Mia, the kid has a perfectly valid point."

"Don't say…" she mumbled.

Her husband laughed, pulling her by the arm. "Well, let's just get out of this place and go look for Izzy. She's probably looking around for us somewhere."

Mia rolled her eyes but followed him. All seemed to be well for now but there was still a lot ahead. One task was down but there were still two more to go.

**A/N: Well, this one really came out kicking and screaming! A real pain to get the words right - I have about a six page long document with the pieces I scrapped of it. Anyway, now that we have the first task out of the way, Christmas time arrives... and then I'll skip a few months to the end of February - guess what happens then? I really hope you liked this chapter. Send a few feedback to feed my addiction. review!**

**P. S: Was it me or the site was acting all weird before?**


	30. Ball Trouble

Nearly another month passed since the first task and things calmed down slightly as the third task wouldn't happen until late February.

With Christmas season right around the corner, both Sirius and Mia seemed to be a in a permanent good mood. Christmas time had always been special for them and, after having to miserably spend it apart for years, this would be their first together again. Better make it memorable.

At the same time, at Hogwarts the Christmas season brought the announcement that, in the evening of Christmas day, the Yule Ball would take place and that the champion's presence was mandatory. It wasn't the fact that he would likely be in the centre of all attention made Harry's toes curl. It was the fact that he needed to take a… date with him. Just thinking of the concept made him shiver from head to toe, not mention the fact that a girl wouldn't just drop from the sky from him to take. He needed to ask one, which was revealing itself a task far scarier that facing Voldemort and all his Death Eaters together.

So, while Harry was procrastinating in what came to ask any girl to go with him to the ball, one week passed, Izzy celebrated her thirteenth birthday (to both her parent's demise while she was still at Hogwarts), Mia turned the housed into Christmas Village and Sirius chased after her making sure she wasn't putting too much effort on herself.

It was late in the afternoon December 18th, the day before Harry and Izzy were set to leave for home, while Mia was somewhere in the house filling what seemed to be dozens of Christmas cards that Sirius received his godson's call via his two-way mirror.

"_I needed to ask you something_," Harry started to tell him, looking a bit redder than usual "_About… hum… girls_."

Sirius sunk into the living room's couch and grinned widely. "Oh, I've been wishing for this to happen for a _long_ time. So, you need help in the girl department. Well, you couldn't have a better godfather to ask for help. How can I help you?"

Harry's miniature face in the mirror seemed to blush even more. "_Er…I sort of still haven't a date for that ball I mentioned in my letter the other day._"

"Then what took you so long before calling? I'm not sure if you realized it already but tomorrow you're coming home," Sirius warned him, amused because of his godson's embarrassment.

"_I know, I know. __It seems really easy for everyone else to get one but… I just can't! What am I supposed to do?! They're always in packs! I can't ask them in front of all their friends. It's embarrassing._"

His godfather chuckled. "Alright, calm down. You're in good hands now. But tell me, did you at least try to ask a girl out already or have you been chickening out all week?"

Harry huffed, accidentally blurring his side of the mirror with his breath. _"I asked someone this morning. But she's already going with someone else,"_ Harry replied.

"So, you've just asked a girl so far?" Sirius inquired in disbelief. He sighed. "Merlin, you could at least have inherited James's nerve for it. He asked your mother out practically every day of the week since his third year."

"_Really?_ _He did?_" There was a tone of surprise in Harry's voice.

"Yeah and it annoyed the hell out of her, so she always said 'no'. She eventually got over the annoyance, obviously, or you wouldn't be here. Mia will tell you the same if you ask her. With this said, Harry, we seriously need to have a talk when you get home. But for now, remember the basics: calm down, keep breathing, go to the girl, ask her to talk privately, if she accepts, ask her if she already has a date and if she says 'no', ask if she wants to go with you. The worst part is the anticipation. Now tell me, do you have anyone else in mind?"

Harry gulped. "_Well, apart from that girl I told you about, her name is Cho, by the way, I thought of, well, Ginny. I mean, we're friends and she's not completely mental like some other girls. And… er… she's not completely unpleasant to look at." _

"No, she really is not," Sirius agreed with a grin. _And she's a redhead_, he added in his thoughts. _The typical Potter trait_.

_He sighed, blushing again. "But Hermione mentioned at lunch that she's already going with Neville."_

Sirius shook his head. "You really should have come to me earlier, kid. Maybe you could have gotten to her before Neville did. But anyone else?"

Harry shook his head. _"Every other girl from my year is either a Slytherin who can't stand me, a Hufflepuff who's holding a grudge on me because of the cup thing, giggles whenever she looks at me, has a date already or can't go to the ball. Or at least that's what Hermione told me. And I don't real know many girls out of my year… Long story short, I'm doomed. Ron is just as bad as I am. Right before Hermione told us, he even had this idea about us switching sisters for the ball and just get over it…_"

Sirius could swear his face had gone completely blank. "Wait! What?!"

"_What what?"_ Harry replied in confusion.

"Switching sisters – as in you taking Ginny and Ron taking…" he hesitated – voicing it would only make it sound more real, "Izzy?" _How dare the little git?_ Sirius thought

He saw Harry shrugging. _"Hum, yeah. That was the plan. We're best mates – we trust each other with our kid sisters. And Ron's sort of desperate too. He thinks he'll be completely humiliated if he shows up at the ball by himself. He even asked Fleur Delacour, the champion from Beuxbatons, and ran before she could answer him! By now I think he's more worried about not looking like 'some looser' than in who he's taking,"_ he pointed out. "And I can't say I feel that different from him."

"But that plan is not happening now, is it? I mean, Ginny's already going with someone else, there's no actual _switch_," Sirius asked. _Please say it's not, please say it's not_. Not his sweet little baby girl. No. That could _not _be happening.

His godson's face seemed uncomfortable. "_Er… Izzy's agreed with it," _Harry said, for Sirius's demise_. "She really wants to go to the ball but she's only a third-year, so she can only go if she's someone's date_. _It's nothing, really._"

"But she's twelve!" Sirius countered. "Twelve year-old girls don't belong in balls as _dates._"

"_I'm thirteen!_" he heard his daughter's voice coming from the other side of the mirror. The door banged in harry's dorm as Izzy closed it.

"_What are you doing here?_" Harry asked her, looking away from the mirror.

"_You said you were going to talk to Dad, so I thought it might be a good idea to say hi to him,_" she replied. The image in the mirror became blurry, as if it was moving really fast, and then Izzy's annoyed look was on the other side. "_Apparently I should have come earlier._"

"You're not going to that ball, Isabelle Kathleen Black," Sirius told her firmly. He only realized he'd used her full name after he'd done it. _What the hell? _He thought. Was he turning into his wife? She was the one with the glares and full-name calling.

Izzy didn't even seem to notice it, as she simply gave him an annoyed look. "_Why not? Everyone else is going!_"

"Only everyone from fourth year up, I hear," Sirius countered. "You're only a third-year, if I recall. Why would you want to go, anyway?"

"_Because I've never been to a ball before! I want to see what's like! Ginny's going, Harry's going and every teacher is going! It's a school ball. What's the problem with me going too?_"

He looked away. "I don't like the idea of you going on a date."

Izzy snorted. "_What date? It's _Ron_. I'm just going with him because he thinks everyone will mock him if he goes alone._"

"I don't know…" Sirius mumbled.

Harry squeezed his face into the image of the mirror "_If it makes it easier for you, I'll look after her during it. I don't think it's necessary but I'll do it,_" he said. "_She really just wants to hang out with us there. It's just a few hours and you can drop us at Hogwarts for it and get us home right after it is over. In the meanwhile, professors will be watching all over._"

"_Exactly," Izzy agreed. "Ron will have to hold his secret passion for me and the urge to read me bad poetry on his knees."_ Sirius heard Harry chuckling and saying something that sounded like _'really bad poetry'_. There was an awkward pause then, until Izzy spoke again. "_You realize that I was joking right? This ball is not anything near a date._"

Sirius sighed. It wasn't like he had more arguments to use… He really didn't want to get into some bad fight with his daughter and possibly is wife too by saying something in the lines of 'You can't go because I say so'. "You really sure it's not?"

"_Positive_," Izzy told him in exasperation. "_It's more like as if he had two tickets for, let's say, a Quidditch game and gave me the extra one because he thinks he'll look stupid if he wastes it. Besides, dating is way too complicated – I'm not all that interested in complicated stuff for the time being, I promise._"

That was a relief. "So I don't need to kill Ron and throw him into a ditch? Because Molly might become a bit upset about it and you could start waving me goodbye for upsetting a redhead woman."

His daughter chuckled, all annoyance gone now. "_I'd rather have you alive, despite how unnerving you can be, Daddy_."

He grinned. "I know you do."

Harry coughed, calling their attention. "_I still need help with my,_" he decided not to use the word 'date' because Sirius might still be a bit touchy with Izzy's situation_," …plus-one for the ball._"

"_About that,_" Izzy told him. "_I think I may have a solution for you… See, I know someone – someone from my year – who might like to go to the ball but she doesn't have a date. She tends to be a bit… misunderstood but she's nice."_

"_Who exactly are you talking about?_"

"_Luna Lovegood_," Izzy told him.

"Oh, the girl with who thought I was innocent because of that allegedly smuggler thing," Sirius recognized with a grin. "I like her."

"_You've barely ever talked to her_," Harry pointed out.

He shrugged. "So? Sometimes it only takes you a minute to like someone."

"_The point is that she's really nice,_" Izzy interrupted them, defending her friend. "_And a really good friend, Harry – incredibly loyal. Take my word for it – it's not like Izzy I have some sick habit of giving you grief._"

"_And sh__e's willing to go with me?"_

"_I'm sure she is_," Izzy replied. "_You know, she told me the other day, during the task, that she suspects it was Crouch who put your name in the goblet. Something about a ministry conspiracy with the Goblits to kill you and get your money… Don't worry, it's probably not true - she tends to come up with this sort of ideas. But she does believe you didn't put your name in_. _That's something you can't say about many girls in this school_."

"She sounds like someone you could use as a friend," Sirius pointed out approvingly. "I guess you have your problem solved there. But I still need to share my dating wisdom with you when you get home, mate."

"_Hum, yeah, thanks_," Harry said a bit hesitantly. "_Well, I guess we should get going. It's nearly time for supper and you know how Ron's stomach can get. See you tomorrow in King's Cross._"

Sirius nodded. "We'll be there at six sharp waiting."Then, he faked a stern look, very worthy of McGonagall's approval and shot it to Izzy. "Behave, devil child."

His daughter smirked. "_I had to inherit that 'devil' part from someone. And I doubt it was from Mom._" And the mirror became blank.

He leaned against the back of the sofa, sighing. Why couldn't kids just stay little forever. Maybe a toddler-sized daughter would be easier for him to protect… Surely a toddler would never be interested in dating.

Suddenly, he felt two hands touching his shoulders from behind the sofa, knowing immediately it was his wife. "Oh, Babs, dear, my wife is at home. She'll find us." Mia hit him in the back of the head and he turned around, pretending to be surprised she was the one there. "Honey, I can explain."

"It's not funny, you know?" she told him, circling the sofa and sitting by his side. "Babs? Where did that come from? That bitchy Slytherin from our school years Barbara Lasher? The one you gave hives to because she was badmouthing me?"

He snorted. "Yeah. I thought of the least person you'd ever consider me having an affair just in case. I considered Rita Skeeter for a while but Barbara sounded even better. Wonder what ever happened to her. Last thing I heard from her was when we went in that trip to the alps – she'd married some rich bloke who was old enough to be her grandfather."

Mia shrugged. "As long as she stays far, far away, I don't really care. But I'd bet she was in her fourth, maybe fifth, by now."

"Yeah, me too. So, how much did you hear from my conversation with the kids?"

"Enough to know that you've handled the situation pretty well."

He snorted. "You call that 'well'?"

"Yeah," Mia said, looking him in the eyes. "All things considered, you handled it very well." One of her hands reached for his and she clasped them together. "I know it's difficult for you, Sirius. You've just gotten Izzy and she's you little girl. The baby you never got to see as a baby. Except she isn't a little girl or a baby anymore. I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel like, Sirius, just getting a daughter and having to deal with her wanting a bit of independence already. But the fact is that you gave in. Not in a spoiling sort of way, I mean. You understood this ball was something she really wanted to go to, that there was nothing wrong with it and you let her go. Under the circumstances, that is incredibly brave of you. And Izzy understands it's hard on you too or else she wouldn't have been this easy."

He raised an eyebrow. "Easy? How so?"

"If it had been me instead of you telling her not to go because 'she wasn't old enough' if it had _nothing_ to do with you, she'd have raised hell on Earth instead of just being annoyed. Izzy's giving you a break, though I doubt she realizes it – the kid has a soft spot for you."

His lips curved – yeah, he had a soft spot for her two. For all of them, really: Izzy, Harry and Mia. "How do you know all of that?"

Mia shrugged. "Some call it mother's instinct, others call it years experience. Lulu prefers the expression 'parenting superpowers'. I think I'll stick with her definition – seems the most accurate."

"Parenting superpowers," he repeated. "Sounds pretty nice. Can I have them too?"

"You already have them – they're still a bit underdeveloped but you'll get there as soon as you get started with the diaper-changing and late-night feedings with this one." She ran her own overgrown stomach

"Looking forward to it," Sirius told her with a grin, placing his hand of top of hers. "Sleepless nights, baby spit, baths, the whole package."

She smiled. "In know you are. But while we wait for the remaining months before this baby comes out and you can start working on it to pass, how about we go out on the Muggle world for a date tonight?"

"A Muggle date, hum?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Go out, have dinner, see the Christmas lights out on the streets. Plus, Elizabeth told me there's this Muggle ice-cream parlour near Charing Cross that has cod-flavoured ice-cream and I wanted to try it," Mia told him with a grin.

He nearly made a disgusted face. "Cod? As in _fish_? You want to eat fish-flavoured ice-cream?!"

"With waffles and cream," Mia added. "I know it's Winter but I really feel like eating ice-cream. Maybe I'll have some hot chocolate with it if it feels too cold."

He forced himself not to look sick. "It just keeps getting better. What was Elizabeth doing in a place like that?"

"Having ice-cream with her kids, obviously," she told him. "They serve regular flavours too like chocolate, strawberry, vanilla… She said they also have chicken, lamb and pork ice-cream for meat lovers… maybe I'll try the pork one too. Sounds interesting."

"Dear Merlin, you are going to ruin my son's sense of taste. Next thing you know he'll want pork ice-cream too right after he's born."

"Newborns can't eat ice-cream, Sirius," she pointed out. "And sometimes I'd eat tuna with cream for breakfast when I was pregnant with Izzy – you don't see her eating it too, do you? Just keep Mummy happy and the baby will be happy too and come out just right. And if Mummy is not happy, Daddy will be grounded."

He nearly chuckled as he got up from the sofa. "Guess we don't want that to happen. But I'm sticking with the regular mint and chocolate, honey. In my world, fish and meat do not belong in ice-cream recipes. But for the record, I'm still mad in love with you, despite your weird eating habits."

"You'd better. It's your fault I'm like this, you randy git." Then, Mia lifted her arms in his direction. "Now, help me up. My centre of gravity is a little out of place these days. Also your fault for getting me knocked up."

"Try to say that as if you were really angry, love," he stated, lifting her up with a push. Sirius smiled at her and placed a kiss on her lips, circling her back with one arm. "Come on, we have a date waiting for us."

**A/N: Slightly smaller chapter but, in my defence, I've been working on future chapters. Sometimes, a scene just gets stuck in my head (even if it won't appear in the for for a while) and I just have to write it or I'll go mad. But I hope you liked this one. Send some feedback to cheer me up while I'm stuck planning freshmen initiation for my college... Review!**


	31. Christmas pt 1

**A/N: Once again, I went way overboard writing this chapter, so... I split it in two!**

**December 24****th**** 1994**

"Sirius Orion Black, you have ten minutes to leave this house or, I swear to Merlin, I will _strangle you_ with my bare hands and then laugh at your deadbody!" Mia yelled at her husband, her eyes blazing with anger as she stood, hands on her hips (or what used to look like hips before she'd gotten that big), in Grimmauld Place's kitchen. "I'll plead temporary insanity at the trial. No woman in the Wizengamot would condemn me."

She'd had enough. She could hear his voice in her mind saying it over and over again: '_Don't strain yourself, Mia. You shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that'._ Oh, she'd had _way_ more than enough of it. By now, hormones and frustration were what was driving her – and, as much as she loved that Sirius, the very small part of her that was still thinking straight didn't trust herself not to beat him up before the day was over if he kept telling what she could and could not do.

She had a Christmas Dinner to prepare. _You could just leave it for Kreacher to do, _Sirius had said. She could, that was a fact. But she really didn't _want to_. Sure, she'd let him help but, Merlin, just because she was nearly seven months pregnant it didn't mean she wasn't able to peel a bunch of carrots or spice damn turkey. Plus, this year was special – the first one since Lily and James had left, since Sirius had been sent to Azkaban, that they would all be together… at least the ones that were still alive: herself, Sirius, Remus (who'd needed a lot of coercion from her and Sirius's part to agree with coming) and Elizabeth. Most of them with families in a tow. This year, Christmas would be… Christmas. And she'd be damned if she wasn't furious at Sirius for being so damn overprotective even then.

Sirius gulped. He knew _his_ Mia would never hurt him but _that_ was not his Mia. That was hormone-created demon that was possessing his sweet beloved wife. He made a mental note to order some thicker skin prior to considering impregnating her again after this one. Then, he decided the wisest move, at least according to what Arthur Weasley had told him to do if that ever happened, would be to do exactly what she was telling him if he wanted to live to see his son be born. "Alright, just… calm down…" he told her in a calm diplomatic tone. I'll just… get the kids and take them out for a while. Just… stay calm, okay?"

"And don't you _dare_ be back before six," she warned him, her blazing softening a bit as she wasn't finding much resistance for him. But only a _little_ bit. "I don't want you hovering here, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," he replied. He could see that the 'do whatever she wants' strategy was working for now. She hadn't thrown anything at him yet. Besides, Kreacher would be there to help her – if there was anything the little bastard was good at, it was, without a doubt, in being smooth when he was trying to keep Mia from overworking herself. He'd have to trust him with the job now as nobody else, not even Lulu, who was still swamped at her work at Flourish & Blots handling the late costumers, was there to do it. "Anything else?"

She huffed. "Make sure you take your coats with you. Last thing I want is a bunch of ill people in the house by boxing day. And do not do anything stupid."

"Do I ever, sweetheart?" He smiled seductively – maybe if he did it right, she might change her mind and let him stay. Maybe she'd let him off the hook – hormone could swing both ways, after all.

Her face didn't change and she raised her right arm, pointing at the kitchen's door. "Out," Mia spat.

_So much for trying,_ he thought as he made his way out of the kitchen, before she used a broomstick to smack his way out, and up to the first floor, where he found Izzy and Harry poking the golden egg Harry had rescued during his first task. Supposedly, it held a hint for the second task that would take place in late February. So far, the hint was nowhere near being found.

"Managed to find anything?" he asked them

Harry shook his head while Izzy said 'no'. At the moment, Harry still wasn't very talkative towards Sirius, not to mention unable to look him in the eyes, after their little talk about girls a couple of days ago that had ended up being turned into _the_ talk after he and Mia had discussed it. They were pretty sure he wouldn't be shagging anyone any time soon but better be safe than sorry.

"Perhaps we're supposed to boil it," Izzy suggested, interrupted his thoughts. "I mean, it's an egg…"

"It's made of gold, Iz," Harry replied. "I doubt trying to cook it will have any point."

"I didn't mean _cooking it_. I mean just boil it. Maybe it will reveal some sort of secret message written on it. I mean, if it's waterproof," she said.

Sirius shrugged. "It probably is. But you can to use a few revealing spells on it later. We could take a look at it tonight. I think Elizabeth's father used to be an unspeakable. Unspeakables know all sorts of code-breaking spells and stuff. Maybe he'll be able to help you with the egg, Harry."

"Oh, that would be nice," Harry mumbled, not lifting his eyes from the egg, embarrassed to face his godfather.

Sirius opted to ignore it and continued talking. "But in the meanwhile, we need to leave the house. Quickly."

Izzy looked up at him in alarm. "What's wrong? Is there a fire? Can't you put it out? Is Mom alright?"

"Actually, your mother threatened me with bodily harm if I didn't leave the house in ten minutes and leave her alone. So, I thought the three of us might go out in the Muggle world for a few hours." Then, he checked his watch. "I think we still have five minutes left to get out of the house safely."

"She wouldn't actually hit you, would she?" Izzy inquired with an eyebrow rose.

"With a level of hormones as high as hers, I wouldn't put it past her," her father told her with a sigh. "Now, if you have anything to get from your room, do it now while I go fetch the Muggle money from mine."

Harry got up. "Er… got to take the egg back to my room," he said, before speeding away.

Izzy raised an eyebrow as she looked at harry's retreating form. "What's with him?" Izzy asked. "He's been acting odd for a while…"

Sirius sighed. "It's nothing you'd like to know."

Five minutes later, dressed for the cold outside and with everything they needed, the three of them met again in the hall to leave the house.

Practically in the same moment they opened the door, Izzy, who was the first one to exit, literally ran into Elizabeth, who'd just apparated right on the front step of the house.

"Ooch, sorry," Izzy apologized. "Hi, Elizabeth."

"Hey," she greeted them, entering the house. "Are you all leaving the boat? Too afraid of dinner preparations?"

"Nah. Mia kicked me out for the afternoon – I guess she got annoyed because I was watching out for her not to overwork herself," Sirius told her.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "I bet you were doing it really smoothly, weren't you?"

He sighed, knowing she was right but opted to change the subject. "What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked her. "Where are your bundles of joy? And your father? Weren't they coming too?"

"I thought Mia might need some help with preparing things for tonight," she told him. "And my father is bringing the kids later. They're spending a few hours with Ludo now – he usually gets them in Christmas day but he'll be busy preparing that ball in Hogwarts tomorrow."

"Oh, alright then," Sirius said, making his way out of the door along with Harry and Izzy. "Well, we'll be back by six. And do me a favour. Keep an…"

"…eye on Mia. Yeah, I know. Remember that I'm a healer – my job is to keep an eye on people. Don't worry – she's in good hands," Elizabeth promised before they closed the door.

---

First thing Sirius did as soon as he left the house was taking the kids to Oxford Street to show them the Christmas lights. Even though it was still daytime, being Christmas Eve, all the lights were lit and were quite visible against the dark grey sky that indicated it would probably rain before the end of that day.

It was completely impossible walking in that street and not bump on someone at least twice a minute as it was so packed with late shoppers. Sirius had expected that to happen, thus having casted anti-burglary spells all over him – Muggles really thought they could get away with anything in a mob. He'd also been hoping he'd be able to talk to Harry about, well, their _talk_, before they head back home. He still laughed in the inside at the kid's horrified face when he realized he was actually receiving the 'talk'.

He glanced at Harry and Izzy, who were walking a few feet ahead of him pointing at the lights and laughing, and immediately knew that taking them out into the Muggle world hadn't been such a terrible idea – they, Harry especially, needed to do normal stuff. Be unknown to everyone a few hours and do something wasn't either life-threatening or nerve-bearing.

"Oh look, they're selling chocolate-covered ginger," Izzy said, when they passed a sweet shop, turning to him. "I love chocolate-covered ginger. Mum always got it for us every year."

"Great," he said. There was the opportunity to talk to Harry with that he'd been hoping for. He reached for a muggle bill in his pocket, the biggest one he could find, and handed it to his daughter. "Get us a bunch. Enough for us to take plenty home for your mother."

"Are you trying to bribe her with sweets into forgiving you?" Izzy asked him with a grin.

"All weapons are allowed in love and war, Izzy," he replied with a grin.

She chuckled before turning to Harry. "Wanna come?"

Sirius responded before Harry had the chance to say anything. "It's pretty packed in there. We'll just stay here waiting for you."

She looked at them strangely. "If the two of you are planning on dumping me here just to mess with me, let me tell you that Mom won't be happy. Not even sweets would spare you from her rage."

"Of course we'd never do that to you. Not in Christmas Eve, at least. It would ruin the spirit of the season," Sirius said, a hint of playfulness in his voice.

She narrowed her eyes at her father. "If you ever dump me somewhere, one day, when you're old and senile, I'll do exactly the same to you."

"You'd never do that to your old dad," he replied.

"Just wait for it," she told him before entering the shop, to her father's amusement.

From the moment Izzy was gone, Harry, Sirius noticed, seemed to have developed a sudden interest in the cars passing on the street.

"Watching the cars, hum?" he asked his godson.

"Yep," Harry replied shortly.

"Cars won't save you from this talk," Sirius warned him.

His godson sighed. "I don't think I'm ready to talk about _that_ talk yet."

Sirius chuckled before taking a breath. "Kid, I understand that you're incredibly embarrassed by that little talk we had and I understand why but not looking at me or trying not to talk about it is not going to make it feel any less uncomfortable. Trust me on this because I had to hear it _twice_."

Surprised, Harry finally looked up at him, one of his eyebrows noticeably raised. "Twice?"

"Yeah, once from my father and another time by your grandfather," Sirius replied. "Let's just say the second time was far less painful, mostly because Prongs was there to suffer the embarrassment right along with me, not to mention far more helpful. But neither of us was able to look at him for a good while."

"Couldn't you have just told my grandfather you'd already had _the _talk?"

"I did," Sirius informed him. "So he told me that, as I knew it already, maybe I could tell him and your father about it. Believe me, I'd rather hear it all over again. Plus, my father's version of _the _talk was a rather morbid one. I absolutely refused to repeat it."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked curiously.

Sirius sighed. "Well, first of all let me tell you that I tried to just let my mind drift – you know, be there but not actually _be there_. I failed. There were parts so… disgusting – morally and graphically disgusting – that nobody could ignore unless they'd gone deaf. Mostly, he kept saying that I shouldn't give any thought to the girl – just get my part and be done with it. Bloody bastard. Then, there was the part when he mentioned that sleeping with a non-pureblood girl, especially, note that I'm quoting him in this part, 'mudblood', would forever taint me and that it might cause certain parts of my anatomy to fall off."

Harry made a revolted face. "Holy Merlin that's… ghastly. Ooch."

"I'm not sure if he was just making it up or if he actually _believed_ it. I assumed my grandfather gave him a similar talk. Makes you think if _your_ talk was so bad," Sirius said.

His godson sighed. "I guess not, when you put it into perspective. But please let's not do it again. Once was enough."

"I'm not a sadist, Harry. Don't worry. You won't have to go through something as bad as I had to," Sirius told him with a laugh. "But if you even need to ask anything about it, go ahead."

"Ask about what?" they heard Izzy's familiar voice asking behind them.

Sirius was the first to turn, seeing his daughter standing there holding a bag with one hand. "Nothing you'd like to know, Izzybel."

She narrowed her eyes. "It's the second time you tell me that today. I don't like it. _At all_."

"I was more or less referring the same thing in both," he countered. "So it only counts as one, really."

Harry sighed. "And, believe me, you really don't want to know." He gulped. "I wish I didn't."

"You'll thank me later," Sirius mumbled to him with a snort, receiving a groan in return. "Ahead, we should go on with our muggle Christmas expedition. Now that we've seen the Christmas lights, I've read on some poster that there's an ice-skating rink by the Natural History Museum. Want to go there?"

His daughter raised an eyebrow. "Do you even know how to ice-skate? Because we don't."

Sirius shrugged. "What's there to know? Just step onto the ice and slide. Can't be that difficult, can it?"

---

He was wrong. A few hours later, by the time they got home after several falls and humiliating situations at the ice rink, Sirius knew it was _that_ difficult… Between himself and the kids, it was probable they'd spent more time skating on their behinds than on their feet. _Note to self: do not try ice-skating again before actually knowing how to do it_, he thought. Next time, he might actually break something and that might make Mia angry…

While the kids had gone up to their rooms to hide the large stash of candy they'd managed to smuggle out of him (not to mention the tons of products they'd gotten from a Muggle joke shop for Fred and George's unofficial Christmas present), he made his way down to the kitchen to check if his wife was calmer by now. He hadn't put much of a fight earlier, after all. And it was more than fifteen minutes after six already, so she couldn't complain about him hovering. So, when he entered the kitchen, he expected to receive some sort of small smile or, at the worst, a mild glare from Mia whenever she laid eyes on him – he was wrong once again.

As soon as his wife saw him, she dropped everything she was doing and quickly made her way to him, wrapping her arms around Sirius's form as tightly she could, considering her large belly was on the way.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice muffle against his shoulder. "I'm really sorry for being so mean to you and sending you away. I'd never strangle you. You know that, don't you?"

_Huge mood swing_, he concluded. A mood swing for better – one he actually appreciated. "Of course I do, Mia," he said, half-lying. He hadn't been so sure about her not wanting to kill him earlier that afternoon. But, well, _that_ Mia wouldn't really hurt him and it wasn't so wrong to lie in those circumstances… "It's alright. I still love and all the usual mushy stuff."

That only made her sob and, all of a sudden, the mood swing didn't seem to be so pleasant. "I'm a… terrible mean… wife," murmured against his shoulder between sobs. "I kicked you our… house and now you're… being so nice to me."

He turned his head to his side and shot Elizabeth a pleading look, only to have her just shaking her head, as if telling him that she couldn't do anything and he was on his own. So, Sirius kept patting Mia's shoulder for a while, trying to figure out what to do with her as he looked at the fire in the kitchen's large fireplace. "It really wasn't your fault, honey. It was the hormones, you know – just part of carrying my baby."

"They make me… completely mental! Bipolar!" she sobbed even harder. "I should… be sent to the… loony bin! Merlin… I just… want this kid to… come out so I can be… sane again!"

"I hardly notice the insanity," he lied again. There was a set in hell saved for him for lying to his own pregnant wife. "Besides, the kids and I actually had a nice time outside."

She pulled away a bit, her eyes still red from the tears but her lips close to a tentative curve. "You did?"

He lifted one of his hands to the side of her face and brushed a tear away, giving her a little smile. "Yeah. We saw the Christmas lights at Oxford Street, which was completely packed, the Christmas tree at Trafalgar Square and we ice-skated. A muggle-expedition."

Mia tried to chuckle but the sound came out as a sniff. "Since when can any of you three ice-skate?"

He sighed. "We tried to. Sitting tonight will be rather painful for any of us but it was fun – incredible how amusing it is to see other people falling on their arses. Then, we ate chocolate-covered ginger to forget the literally freezing pain on out behinds – we brought it for you too, by the way."

She finally gave him a teary smile. "Thank you."

He kissed her brow before responding. "You're more than welcome." And then he pulled her closer again. By the corner of his eyes, he noticed Elizabeth shooting him a 'well done' sort of smile.

A few seconds later, still holding Mia in his embrace, Sirius watched as the flames in the fireplace became green and Remus Lupin materialized into their kitchen. Mia pulled away when she heard it and turned to the fireplace.

"Hi, Remus," she said, giving him a small smile when she saw him standing in front of them.

"Moony," Sirius started with a mocking grin on his face, "what an enormous delight to have you for Christmas at our humble shack. Please make yourself at home and have some snacks."

Remus raised an eyebrow at him. "Have you been drinking firewhiskey already? That's supposed to come after the meal, not before."

Sirius shook his head in disapproval. "A bloke can't just be cheerful and everyone starts believing he's drunk… I have two kids, another one on the way and a beautiful wife. What's not to be happy about? This reminds me… you still need to get a girl."

Brushing the ashes of his robes, Remus rolled his eyes. "Not again…"

"Harper's free," Sirius let him know, still grinning widely as he nodded at Elizabeth who was approaching them. "She brings two kids in the package but she's not so horrible to look at. My biased self thinks Mia looks better but you can't have her."

Hearing that, Mia let out a low sniff and her eyes got redder, which made them all turn to her in alarm. "Sorry, hormones. Go on." With a sigh, Sirius put one arm around her comfortingly.

"Right," Elizabeth mumbled. "Where was I getting? Oh, right. Harper is _not_ looking," she declared, glaring at both Sirius and Mia before she turned to their old friend. "No offence, Remus, but I'm rather happy with being free. Men can be a pain…"

He shook his head. "None taken. Those two just like to believe love is contagious."

"We're just trying to spread the happiness around those we love," Sirius replied in a mock-offended tone. "Blame us for it…"

**A/N2: *sigh* I know. Breaking it in a half sucks. But I can't post a 6k words chapter and then go back to usual 3k. But maybe, MAYBE, I'll be hit by one of those waves of generosity and post the other half later... Actually, I'll leave it for you to decide. do you want the other half a couple of days earlier or not? I'm no Trelawney so I can't really guess this stuff - you actually have to let me know... Anyway, was this half chapter christmasy? Next half may be more... Feedback please!**


	32. Christmas pt 2

**A/N: Here is the second part of the chapter - last night I added more to it (what's wrong with me? why does inspiration hit me like a train when I start school again?!)**

A few hours later, as she sat on the dinning room's sitting area's comfy couch, Mia wondered if she'd spent her last twelve Christmases asleep or, at the very least, numb. They felt hollow compared to that one. No matter how hard she tried for the kids, Christmas ever since 1981 hadn't really felt authentic. That night it did and it was like… a breath of fresh air.

She glanced around the room, as she rested against her husband's side as he and Remus laughed about something she couldn't really register. The room was alive: people talked, laughed, discussed Quidditch and on. Mia could even hear Lulu complaining to Elizabeth about how late-costumers during Christmas season acted like primates dressed as people and even dared trying to bargain prices and Elizabeth replying that it was no wonder the emergency service at the St. Mungos had been so full earlier that day. '_People get stupid during holidays_,' was Lulu's thoughtful conclusion. _Typical_ Lulu, Mia thought. Despite the bad mood, she knew her mother was having fun that night too.

"Almost feels like old times," Sirius said with a wide grin when she voiced her thoughts to him, minutes later. "Only thing missing is Lils yelling at me and James for switching her Christmas pudding for one that was charmed to explode as soon as someone tried to eat it." He laughed. "I still can see her face when it blew up."

Remus shook his head in disapproaval. "I'd warned you not to do it because she'd be angry," he said from his armchair as he sipped his goblet of butterbeer. "There was pudding all over the room, not to mention all over us… If looks could kill, she'd have been dragged to Azkaban for making a slaughter out of that Christmas dinner."

"It was nothing a little scourgify spell and a few showers couldn't fix," Sirius remarked. "It was a harmless prank – no reason to get that fussy."

Mia raised an eyebrow. "You got pudding all over her five-month-old son!" Mia reminded him, pulling away from his side to lounge on the sofa, resting her legs on his lap. "You can bet I'd get _fussy_ too if someone had covered my son with Christmas pudding." She stopped for a moment, pretending to have just remembered something. "In fact, he _is_ my son now. And yours too. Which means you and I should be angry at you and James for getting him covered with food and making him cry for nearly ten minutes after it."

Her husband raised an eyebrow. "That makes no sense at all. Or maybe it does… You go way too far with logics, Mia – I can't follow them after having two butterbeers. And it was over a decade ago – that sort of stuff gets forgotten over time. Plus, we hadn't expected him to be so close to the pudding," Sirius said. "Lily was the one who changed seats at the last minute – we thought P…" he stopped talking – for a moment he'd forgotten about the bloody bastard who'd betrayed them. He took a deep breath before continuing. "We thought it was that traitorous rat who'd be sitting near it."

There was an awkward moment of silence.

"He did have a thing for Christmas pudding," Remus mumbled absently before sighing.

"Pity he never got to choke on it," Mia snarled.

Sirius didn't respond, though he agreed with her. It was Christmas – they wouldn't be ruining that occasion by voicing their hate, a death-wishes, on Wormtail. "But it made a nice memory, didn't it?" he said, trying to break the ice that had formed in the air. "The pudding exploding. None of us ended up forgetting it…" And at the time they hadn't even phantom that it would be their last Christmas together

"It was pretty memorable, I have to admit," Mia mumbled. "But not so funny when we were the ones with pudding all over our hair – sort of disgusting actually."

"What was so disgusting?" Elizabeth asked them, approaching then and taking a seat on one of the armchairs.

"The pudding prank," Remus told her.

She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "The pudd… _oh_, _that_ prank. If you're planning to do it again, wait until I'm out of here. I'm not really in the mood to drag two kids to the bath at this time of the night."

Sirius chuckled. "Don't worry, Harper, there's no explosive pudding on schedule this year. Maybe next one I'll think of it."

"Don't you dare," Mia warned him with a glare.

"Of course not," he said – though his words said otherwise, his tone made her think he might be just planning to do that… Sirius looked back at Elizabeth, ignoring the daggers being shot from his wife's eyes. "Has your father had any success with the egg?" He glanced at the table, where Elizabeth's father, Robert Harper, sat with Harry, now a curious Lulu having joined them, frowning at the golden egg while he tapped it with his wand, apparently not getting any results.

The blonde shook her head. "Nothing yet – he reckons they're trying too hard, after all the hint for school kids to find. Maybe it's something so basic that they're ruling it out immediately."

Remus nodded in agreement. "Yes, they can't expect the champions to have access to magic as advanced as an unspeakable's."

"Well, whatever it is, it's better be good because that bloody thing didn't sound like anything that belonged on Earth when they opened it upstairs," Sirius told them. "They'd need one hell of a trick to make it sound like an understandable hint."

"Well, he still has two months to find something," Mia said, trying to think positively.

"He will," Sirius said positively. "Harry's a smart kid."

---

A couple of hours later, after Remus Lupin had already gone home and Lulu had left as well, saying she was exhausted because of working the whole day, Izzy was sitting on the floor with Elizabeth's kids, while Harry already snored on a comfy armchair by the door, probably exhausted with all the thinking, clutching the golden egg.

Unlike him, the youngest kids seemed to be quite energized that night, asking her about Hogwarts back and forth. _It's sort of amusing being on the other side_, Izzy thought. Just a few years ago, she'd been the little kid wanting to know everything there was to know about Hogwarts.

"Grandpa said there are ghosts there," Evie said. "Are they bad? Do they scare everyone?"

Izzy chuckled. "No, they're nice. Mostly. For example, there's Nearly-Headless Nick – he's my house's ghost."

"Nearly headless?" Evie inquired in disbelief. "How…"

"Don't ask how it works," Izzy interrupted her. "You really need to see for yourself. But Nick usually greets us and talks to us like, well, a living person. He's a bit old-fashioned and odd sometimes but mostly nice. Then, there's Moaning Myrtle. She's a really depressive; you wouldn't want to spend much time around her. And the Bloody Baron is a bit Creepy. But they're harmless. There's a poltergeist, though. Peeves. That one is a pest – you really wouldn't like to cross him. The bloody Baron is the only one that can control him."

"Peeves bad?" Harper asked.

Izzy shrugged. "Mostly annoying. He throws water balloons at us and stuff. The caretaker, Filch, hates him. He's always chasing Peeves with his cat. That is, when he's not chasing the students trying to get us in trouble."

Surprisingly, Evie smiled. Somehow, she found that thrilling. "Nice. Can I go?"

"Sure. If you can fit into my trunk," Izzy told her with a chuckle.

"You have to be inside of a trunk when you go to Hogwarts?!" Evie asked in alarm. "Mummy said she met your mummy on the train to school. Did they have to share a trunk? Doesn't it hurt?"

Izzy snorted. "No. People usually don't go in trunks. We can go like passengers – our moms met when they travelled in the same compartment – but they wouldn't let you go as a passenger 'cause you're too small. You'd have to sneak in with the luggage."

"But I don't want to go to Hogwarts in a _trunk_," Evie mumbled. "It's cramped."

"I can," little Harper said, pausing to yawn after he'd said that. "I'm smaw – I fit."

Evie shook her head. "No. You're too little. I couldn't look after you if you were there and I was here. Then, you might get in trouble and Mummy would be angry."

"And it would probably be boring because you'd have to hide in the castle all the time," Izzy added with a nod. "If the teachers caught you they'd send you back home or give you detention."

"What's detatia?" Harper asked.

"Detention," Izzy corrected. "It's when they punish you."

"Like when Momma sends Evie to her woom when she doesn't eat the green things?" little Harper inquired with a tiny eyebrow rose.

"They're icki!" his sister said with a frown.

"I like 'em."

"That's because you're weird!"

"'m not!" He protested with a pout, getting up. "I'm gonna find Momma. You meanie!"

"No, I'm not!" Evie countered as he left before looking back at Izzy. "He's annoying."

Izzy chuckled. "But you like him a lot, don't you?"

The blond girl shrugged. "He's my little brother."

"I'm having a little brother too," Izzy told her. "In a few months."

"That's why your Mummy is so big, isn't it? My mummy got big too before Harper came – she said he was in her tummy." She made a face. "She was kidding, wasn't she? How would the baby get there?"

Izzy gulped. "That you'll have to ask her. But anyway, maybe you could tell me what I'm supposed to do. As a big sister, I mean."

Evie shrugged. "Mummy says I'm supposed to look after him – make sure he doesn't get hurt or breaks anything. And we play sometimes."

"Look after him and play," she repeated. "Okay. I think I can do that."

"But Mummy wouldn't let me play with him when he was really small," Evie told her. "I don't remember much. He cried a lot and slept all the time. But he felt really soft like Mummy's pretty clothes. Mummy said I had to be careful 'cause I could break him."

"Babies are fragile," Elizabeth said as she approached them with Harper by the hand and her father on her side. She looked at Izzy. "Evie was four when he was born – you can imagine that a kid that age handling a baby isn't the smoothest thing in the world."

"I'm not sure _me_ handling a baby will be smooth anyway," Izzy mumbled.

Robert Harper shook his head. "You'll be alright with your brother. When Bessie was born," he said, referring his only daughter by the nickname he'd given ever since she remembered, "she was so small I thought she'd fall apart in my arms. As you can see, she's still on one piece."

Elizabeth chuckled. "Take his word – after a brilliant career as an unspeakable, my old dad started at 65 another career, this time as his grandchildren's nanny. Just ask him and he'll tell you anything about changing diapers and feeding kids."

"I think it's a nice career," Izzy pointed out.

"You never get bored, that's for sure," he told her.

"Well, enough talking," she said, turning to her daughter. "It's time to go, Evie. Almost three hours past your bedtime is more than enough."

"Can't we stay just a bit longer? Just one more hour?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "We'll come back another day. Come on."

Evie groaned but did as her mother told her, getting up. "Can I at least open the presents when we get home?"

"Keep trying, young lady," her mother told her. "You can open them in the morning. Your father said he could drop by then."

Izzy smiled softly as they said the rest of their goodbyes and, after they were gone, she joined her parents by the sofa, her mother already asleep with her head lying on her father's shoulder.

"Looks like Mom's out already," Izzy pointed out.

Sirius chuckled. "It was predictable she'd be tired, with all the stuff she did today. Makes me feel like telling her 'I told you so'. But she'd probably snap at me, then. Well, don't worry about your mother. I'll make sure she gets to bed. Maybe you should get there yourself, Izzybel. And wake Harry on your way out – he's bond to show up at the ball tomorrow with a sore neck if he spends all night sleeping on that armchair."

"I'll do that." She sighed before wrapping her arms around her father's waist. "It's great having you here for Christmas. Promise me you always will be here forever."

"Always," he repeated, running a hand through his daughter's hair. "As long as I live, Izzybel, I'll be here for Christmas. After that, we'll see how it works."

She smiled and reached up to kiss his cheek. "I guess that's all I can ask. Good night."

"'Night," he replied, grinning back as she approached Harry's armchair and hit him with a pillow that had been at some point left on the floor. He woke up with a jump mumbling an annoyed 'what' before she ushered him up to their rooms' floor. Then, he turned to face his wife's sleeping form.

Mia looked so peaceful – even thinking of waking her up seemed sinful. He carefully brushed a strand of hair from her face. He'd carry her – she'd always been light and, even with the baby weight, she couldn't be _that_ heavy now.

He was careful in lifting her up but not careful enough as she opened her eyes. "Hum, what?" she mumbled incoherently.

"Nothing," he told her. "Just taking you up to bed."

"Oh, okay," she said, covering her mouth as she yawned and wrapping her other arm around his neck, enjoying the feeling that was being carried in his arms. "What time is it?"

"A little past midnight," he told her as he carried her up to their room. "Elizabeth's just left and the kids went to bed."

"'Kay, good," she mumbled. "You didn't have to carry me. I bet I'm heavy."

He shook his head. "You're light as a feather, love," Sirius told her as he entered the room.

"Hum, liar," she murmured. "But I like that sort of lie. You're a good husband. A bad one would have been checking out the hot blonde in the room over his pregnant wife."

Sirius chuckled, knowing she was talking about Elizabeth, as he laid her on the bed. "Blondes are not my type – I prefer brunettes. You need to take off those clothes – I bet they're not too comfortable to sleep in. Are you awake enough to do it or do you need help?"

She smiled. "I think I'm awake enough. But I wouldn't refuse the help."

"My pleasure," he told her, grinning back before he kissed her brow, helping her up.

"You do realize that I'm too tired to do anything beyond kissing, don't you?"

He nodded. "If I was a mean husband, I might say 'I told you so'. But I'm a good husband, after all, so I won't blame you for overworking yourself today. You have time to sleep it off."

She kissed his cheek. "You're nice too. I knew I had married you for some reason. That and loving you senseless."

He grinned back and it took them about five minutes to get ready for bed and get themselves under the covers. There, Mia turned to her side as far as she could with the baby bump on the way in order to face Sirius.

"Enjoyed the evening, Mrs. Black?" Sirius asked her in a whisper.

She sighed. "Very much. This is our first Christmas as a married couple. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

Sirius nodded. "Feels like this was supposed to have happened a few years ago."

"Better late than never," she told him with a smile. "And next year we'll have an infant to keep away from the fireplace. Merlin, we were fast."

"Yeah," he murmured. "Great, isn't it? We could also be fast after that one is born."

"Dream on," she said with a chuckle. "You can't be looking forward for more nine months of mood swings, hormones and fat wife after this baby is born."

Sirius smiled and rested his hand on her bump. "I can and I will. I love you very much, you know that? Mood swings, hormones, that huge bump. I think it makes me love you even more than I used to, if that's possible. And I love this baby very much too, as well as the other that will come after him. " He'd get to hold that baby, be there to see him breath for the first time like he hadn't had the chance to be there for his little girl. He'd see him grow until he was old enough to get to Hogwarts…

Her hand reached for his face as her lips curved further. "I love you very much too even though you're an overprotective git as horny as a pig."

He sighed. "We're so mushy. That pig remark had to be the queen of all mushiness. The last part was sarcasm, if you're wondering."

Mia shrugged. "I'm tired – pardon me for my lack of taste…"

He laughed, kissing her brow. "Go to sleep, then. You can rephrase that in the morning."

And they fell asleep minutes later, Sirius's thought going back to how different that Christmas had been from the others, how different it could have been if Halloween 1981 had never happened. And the dreams came to him in the form of what could have been…

---

_Sirius woke up when he felt some__thing, or rather someone, sneaking onto his and Mia's bed. He slightly opened one eye, making his best to keep himself from grinning and giving himself away when he saw who it was. When the little intruder settled herself between him and Mia, in a swift move, he grabbed her by the waist and tickled her mercilessly._

"_Who dares intruding onto Mummy and Daddy's bed?" he asked, forcing a rough tone._

"_Daddy!" his five-year-old daughter said, laughing. She was his little sun, his shinny moon ever since the moment she was born. His pink-cheeked baby with Mummy's pretty hair and Daddy's playful eyes. _

"_Give me a good reason not to tickle you for all eternity, little girl," he told her playfully._

"_It's… Christmas," she said between laughs. "Mummy says you… should be nice at… Christmas or you won't get presents!"_

_He pretended to think for a second and then stopped the tickling her. "Alright, I guess because it is Christmas we can solve this with you paying for your stay," he told her, pointing at his cheek._

_The little girl grinned and stood up on the bed, reaching for her father's cheek and giving him a sloppy kiss. "There, Daddy," she said with a giggle._

"_Hum, I recall owning half the bed," Mia's sleepy voice stated as she rubbed her eyes. "I deserve half the payment."_

_Her daughter let herself fall back on the bed, giving her mother a kiss too. "Mornin' Mummy."_

"_Good morning, my little Izzy. Happy Christmas," Mia replied with a smile, lifting the covers so the little girl could sneak under them and lie between her and Sirius._

_Sirius reached over Izzy to give Mia a kiss too, though he did it on her lips. "Happy Christmas, handsome husband," she whispered against his lips_

"_Happy Christmas, beautiful wife," he told her as he pulled away. Then, he placed a kiss n Izzy's forehead. "And pretty daughter who sneaks into Mummy and Daddy's bed."_

_Izzy giggled. "It snowed!" she announced happily. _

_Mia raised an eyebrow in surprise. They rarely got snow in London at that time of the year. "It did?" _

"_Yes, Mummy! Can I go play out in the snow?" she asked eagerly. "It's pretty."_

"_Don't you want to go open your presents first, princess?" Sirius asked her._

"_Oh, can I do that now, Daddy?" she replied, sitting up on the bed. "Please?"_

_He snorted. "You have no shame at all, do you, Izzybel?"_

_She shook her head, pulling his arm. "Presents and snow, Daddy! Come on!"_

_Sirius chuckles and placed a kiss on his wife's cheek before getting up and scooping Izzy into his arms. "Come on, presents and snow it is," he said as he carried her down the spiral staircase that led to the lower floor. They still lived in that two-__bedroom apartment he and Mia had moved into after they'd left Hogwarts. It was enough for the three of them for now._

"_When are we going to uncle Prongs and auntie Lily's home? Harry said he asked for a real broom! I wanna see it! Can I fly it alone if he got one?" Izzy asked as her father placed her on the floor._

"_We'll get there in a few hours – you don't wanna wake uncle Prongs and auntie Lily's baby do you?" _

_She shook her head. "She cries really loud. But can I fly alone, Daddy? Please?"_

"_Only if Mummy lets you," he told her._

_She pouted. "Mummy says I'm too small. 'm not that small – I can reach the cookie jar!"_

"_You're our baby girl," Mia said as she entered the room too and kissed her husband's cheek. "You'll always be small for us no matter how many cookies you can steal. __Now, dive into those presents, Izzy."_

_Izzy, giggle, skipping her way to the sea of presents under the tree, while her parents cuddled on the sof__a watching her._

"_She's cute," Sirius told his wife. "We should get one more some time."_

_Mia chuckled. "Already done," she told him._

_He raised an eyebrow when he looked at her again and saw that, all of a sudden, she was heavily pregnant. "Wha…"_

"_We're already having another baby, silly," Mia told him, rubbing the bump._

"_It's true, Daddy," Izzy told him. And she didn't look five anymore – she was older, in her early teens. "Just wake up."_

---

He did wake up with a jolt after that. And the sigh came as soon as he realized it had been dream…

He looked at the clock on his bedside table and saw it was still 5 in the morning.

Part of him ached because the dream wasn't real – Izzy wasn't a little girl, Lily and James were not alive and they didn't have another child - but the other was happy that, at least, it wasn't _all_ made up: he still had Mia – he could feel her breathing against his chest. And he knew Izzy was downstairs sleeping in her room and so was Harry. Selfishly, he was relieved his godson was with them too, though that meant his beat friends were still dead.

He held on more tightly to the sleeping Mia and rested his hand on her stomach. Yes, the baby was still there…

As brilliant as the dream might be, reality, though faulty at times, wasn't so bad after all. Best part of it was that he could actually live it.

**A/N2: Well, according to word, this chapter (part 1 and 2) had a total of 7468 words... personal record here. I hope you liked this chapter - the dream sequence was a thing that had been playing in my head for a while... Well, gotta go study history of art - the assignments start already... leave some feedback! Review!**


	33. Second Task

**A/N: I apologize for the late update but I got an unexpected French paper to do and, well, couldn't edit it until now. So, to make up for it, I ended up inserting a little piece of what was supposed to be the beginning of next chapter as the end of this one. Go ahead and read.**

**February 27****th**** 1995**

Izzy woke up suddenly with someone shaking her and calling for her name. "Izzy, you have to wake up now," the someone said. "Dumbledore is summoning us to the common room. He sent Dobby to wake me."

She groaned in annoyance and opened one eye to see, to her own surprise, that it was Hermione who was calling for her.

"What time's it?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Around six," the older girl responded.

Izzy rolled to her other side. "Too early," she mumbled.

With a groan, Hermione reached for the covers and pulled them off her. "Come on. Get up."

"No. Why does Dumbledore want the two of us in the common room at this hour of the morning, anyway?" Izzy asked, trying to get the coverts back.

"Something about the task, I assume," Hermione told her. "Just get ready. Fast. Dobby made it sound like it was important."

Grumbling something to herself, Izzy finally got up. If it wasn't about the task, she wouldn't have bothered to get up because, after all, it might help Harry – she was a morning person but enough to happy to be awaken at six in the morning on a Saturday.

Little over five minutes later, they finally went down to the common room, where they strangely found Dumbledore sitting on the couch petting Crookshanks. He got up as soon as he heard them coming, causing the cat to run away, and, using his wand, he casted a spell around them that they assumed to be an imperturbable charm.

"Miss Granger, Miss Black," he greeted them with a smile. "I apologize for having you woken you up this early but it was strictly necessary."

Hermione nodded. "It's no problem, Professor," she said, as Izzy didn't seem to be on a very outspoken mood. "What do you need us for?"

"Well, I assume Mr. Potter has told you about the clue he fortunately found inside his golden egg."

They nodded. It had taken Cedric Diggory's hint to have him figuring that the egg need to be listened under water.

"Then, you already know that the task will take place underwater at the lake," he told them. "There, the champions are supposed to retrieve an… object in an hour. That's why I've asked you to meet me now – we need to speak of your role in it."

"Our role?" Izzy asked. "Do you want us to steal something for them to retrieve?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "No, Miss Black. I was hoping you'd be _what_ they were to retrieve."

They just stared for a few moments. He wasn't actually asking them that, was he?

"Professor, you… you want us to lie in the bottom of the lake so Harry can save us?" Hermione asked hesitantily.

"Actually, Miss Granger, you'd be for Mr. Krum to save. I hear you've grown quite fond of each other over time."

Hermione blushed deeply as she heard that – it had been a surprise to everyone when Krum had been the one to take her to the Yule ball, especially for Ron who had not only been insisting she was making her date up, but also seemed to be quite jealous.

"It is important each champion has someone dear for them to save," Dumbledore continued. "So, Miss Black, as Harry's sister, blood-related or not, you would be his person to 'save'. I can assure you that you will be completely safe at the lake – we have taken all the precautions so that happens. You will be under a spell that will allow you to breathe underwater and if the champion who is supposed to save you doesn't succeed, the merpeople will take you to surface themselves – they've been very helpful with this task. Of course, any of you is free to refuse if you don't want to take part on this task."

Hermione took a deep breath. "So, we're just supposed to stay down there and wait to be saved."

"Not wait, Miss Granger. The spell will put you in a sleeping state – we understand it might be rather frightening to be underwater for such a long period awake. You won't remember anything about it," Dumbledore told her. "As I said, we've taken all precautions to make sure that neither you nor the champions will be in any sort of danger."

"None?"

"As far as we're concerned, that's right," Dumbledore assured her.

Hermione sighed. "Well, I guess it's alright, then. I'll be Victor's… object to retrieve."

Dumbledore nodded. "Very well, Miss Granger," he told Hermione before turning to Izzy. "What about you, Miss Black?"

Izzy looked down. "I'd like to do that. I really would. But I… I can't."

The headmaster gave her a surprised look. "May I inquire why, Miss Black?"

"My mother. She's _nine months_ pregnant and already worrying sick about Harry. As much as I would like to help that, I'm more worried about my mother and my baby brother – even though she can't come this time, if she somehow gets wind that I'm asleep at the bottom of the lake, no matter how safe that might be, she'll get into even more stredd and Merlin knows what can happen to any of them if that happens…"

The headmaster seemed thoughtful for a moment. "I'll admit I hadn't thought of Amelia's condition before… And I have to admit you have a very good point there, Miss Black. Her well-being is more important and we wouldn't want to upset your mother in these circumstances."

"I'm really sorry," Izzy said. "But if you need me for the third task, it won't be a problem…"

Dumbledore laughed softly. "I promise I will keep that in mind, Miss Black. Well, in this case, I guess you can go back to bed now, while I talk to Miss Granger. Let me just warn you, Miss Black, that when you walk out of this common room, the memories of what we talked down here will be… missing until the task started. Mr. Crouch found essential to make sure none of the champions knew exactly what they were to save and made sure that happened by casting a certain charm. I hope you understand, Miss Black."

She nodded. That sort of made sense… after all it wouldn't be fair if some champions were told about the task sooner than others. "I understand professor," she told him before making her way to the girl's staircase, all thoughts of their conversation dissolving slowly.

When she entered the common room, a half-asleep Ginny was sitting up on her bed and looked at her strangely. "Where have you been wearing day clothes already?" she asked in a whisper.

Izzy looked down and frowned – she was indeed, wearing day clothes. For a moment, she wondered if she'd slept in them. _No, I remember changing to my pyjamas,_ she thought. She vaguely remembered being called somewhere by Dumbledore – for what exactly, she couldn't phantom. But the memories were so hazy she swore it had been some sort of odd dream. "I… I'm not sure."

"You're not sure?"

Izzy shook her head. "No… I can't remember."

"Do you think you've… sleepwalked?" Ginny asked her with an eyebrow rose. She'd know if Izzy tended to sleepwalk, right? They'd been roommates for two years.

"Maybe," Izzy mumbled, sitting on the edge of her four-poster bed. She'd never sleepwalked in her life… at least that she knew of. But what other explanation was there?

---

Sirius could feel his wife's glare hitting him even though his back was turned to her as he finished dressing. The seconds task would be in a few hours and, under Elizabeth's orders, Mia couldn't go because, that far in her pregnancy, she could go into labour at any time. At least it was almost over…

He finally turned around as he dressed his coat and saw her sitting up on the bed – arms crossed over her huge bump and frown on her face.

Sirius sighed. "You do realize that I had nothing to do with you not going this time, right?" he asked. "Elizabeth was the one who said you couldn't – she's the healer, she decides."

She kept glaring. "Elizabeth is not here, is she? And I know you're glad that I can't go – you didn't want me to go to the first task either. Bloody bastard."

He groaned. "Do you feel like going into labour in the middle of a gigantic mob of students? Because I'm pretty sure that might not be so comfortable."

The pout she gave him reminded of a little kid's. "I want to be there anyway. How am I supposed to stay home and wait for you to come back and tell me how it was?"

Sirius chuckled. "Look, I promise I'll send you a patronus as soon as Harry is out of the water," he told her, approaching the bed and sitting on the edge of it, placing one his hands on top of hers. "He's a lot more prepared this time – he found the clue in the egg, he knows he'll be underwater, he knows how to swim, he knows how to cast the bubblehead charm… Harry will be okay."

Mia gave him a frustrated look. "I'm his godmother – I _should_ be there. Plus what are the odds of me going into labour today specifically? We could just…"

He touched her lips with the tip his finger. "We can't bend the rules. You'll stay here today like Elizabeth said for our baby who's still really small and needs to be taken care off. I will go to Hogwarts and look after the other two, who are not so defenceless anymore. Trust me."

She sighed. "I do. More than anything."

Sirius smiled. "Great. And cheer up. Do you know what day it is tomorrow?"

"Our birthday," she replied, with a sigh. "You know, at some point, birthdays are not supposed to be a cheery occasion because they make you feel old. Lulu stopped celebrating hers when she turned forty."

"We'll worry about that when we turn forty, five years from tomorrow. But I didn't just mean our birthday when I asked what day was tomorrow. It's the anniversary of the day we got together as well," he added with a grin.

She laughed. "Merlin that was so long ago. Incredible how I still remember it like it was yesterday…"

"Me too," he told her with a smile. "There you were, hiding from the party outside the portrait hole and thinking of how turning seventeen didn't seem to change much until I joined you and suggested we created the change. You actually thought I just wanted a snog."

"We did snog that night," she pointed out. "But you also told me you loved me."

"And you said it back. Skip a few years and here we are: married and having another baby," he told her with a grin. "Think of it instead of worrying about Harry. I'll be there and I'll swim to the bottom of the lake to retrieve him if he gets in trouble."

Mia chuckled at the idea. "I can only promise that I'll try."

He nodded. "That's more than enough," he told her before kissing her forehead and then her lips. "Take care of our baby and remember than I'm madly in love with you despite our lack of shagging for the past month."

She smiled. "Yeah, the same goes to you. Now get going because the task starts in fifteen minutes, you lazy arse."

He chuckled, getting up from the bed and made his way to the door with a smile on his lips.

---

Mia had been right – he'd been a lazy arse and he should have come earlier to Hogwarts. His arrival so close to the beginning of the task had allowed him merely five minutes with his godson before the judges shooed him away and the rest of the time before the task was spent trying to find a good spot to watch the task in the middle of the mob, seeing as he wasn't feeling like going up to the teacher's stands like Dumbledore had invited him – it was way too close to Snape for his own taste.

"Daddy!" he heard his daughter calling from a distance. "Daddy, here!" He couldn't quite see her, probably because she wasn't tall enough to tower over the crowd, but he did see a pair of waving arms over a few people's heads several yards away on the watching platform over the lake.

He managed to drill his way through the multitude of students, which was easier than he'd expected as some of them were ridiculously awestruck whenever the saw him close. He couldn't quite understand why – it wasn't as if it was the first time he was at Hogwarts but he couldn't complain because, after all, it made them easier to push out of his way.

Sirius found Izzy standing with Ginny and Luna Lovegood by the platform's rails, with a privileged view over the water.

"Nice place you got yourselves here, girls," he told them.

Izzy chuckled. "I happened to mention to a few people that you might be coming to watch the task with us and they just let us get past them and come here."

"I suppose some people may still be afraid of you, Mr. Black," Luna Lovegood pointed out in her usual dreamy voice. "Or maybe it was the Wrackspurts… They make people feel strange."

Sirius forced himself not to laugh at the young girl's beliefs. She was nice, after all and Harry hadn't had a terrible time with her during the Yule Ball… He'd mentioned she'd been avoiding the mistletoe all night long because she'd been afraid of the Nargles – to his own relief because, as friendly as he might be with Luna, getting himself under mistletoe along with her. _Maybe if had been Ginny, _Sirius wondered. "Right. So, how are you girls doing?"

Izzy shrugged. "Alright. Nothing eventful has happened."

"Oh, yes it has," Ginny replied with a chuckle. "You sleepwalked this morning – got dressed and went somewhere asleep."

"Well, that's hardly eventful! And that you so much for mentioning it," Izzy told her, her last sentence in a rather sarcastic fashion

"Come on, it's funny!"

"No, it's not!"

"Of course it is," Sirius told her. "But, anyway, you sleepwalk? I had no idea."

"I don't… I mean, I don't know anymore. Maybe I didn't sleepwalk," she said. "I was just… confused."

"Confused?" he asked her.

She sighed. "Yeah – I'll tell you about it later."

"Yeah, that might be a good idea," Ginny announced. "Looks like they're about to start."

They all looked in the same direction as Ginny did, seeing Harry and the rest of the champions standing by the edge of the teacher's and jury's floating platform, ready to jump into the water.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle," Ludo Bagman announced. "They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One… two… three!"

And the three of them jumped into the lake as the crowd cheered.

"Oh, oh!" Izzy said. The memories of the talk she and Hermione had had with Dumbledore that morning started flowing back in the exact moment Ludo Bagman had announced the task had begun. "I knew it! I wasn't sleepwalking! I remember now!"

"Remember what?" her father inquired.

She took a deep breath before telling him, Ginny and Luna the whole story about what has happened earlier that morning. "I said 'no' because of Mom. She'd have a fit if she knew I was unconscious on the bottom of the lake and fits are not a good thing for her at the moment."

"Are you sure it wasn't some weird elaborate dream?" Ginny asked her.

"Dreams can be pretty elaborate," Sirius provided, recalling his own dreaming experience in Christmas Eve morning. Thinking of how things would have turned out if the contents of that dream had happened still made him a bit depressed at times.

Izzy shook her head. "No, I'm sure it really happened. Hermione has been gone all morning, hasn't she? How much would you bet that she's currently at the bottom of the lake? And Ron's nowhere to be seen too – I couldn't be Harry's person to save, so maybe they picked Ron instead – he's his best friend, after all."

"But how come you've only remembered this now?" Sirius asked her with an eyebrow rose.

"Probably an information-concealing charm," Luna said. "The ministry uses it all the time – Dad's making an investigation about it for an article. He believes the ministry is using charms like this to conceal the existence of some conspiracies."

"Hum, right," Izzy mumbled uncomfortably – sometimes she just had no idea of what to say to Luna after she came up with ideas like that. "But it may be a concealing charm – Dumbledore warned me that I wouldn't remember anything until the task started because of some charm Crouch had casted."

"So, let me get this straight," Sirius said. "Dumbledore asked you if you wanted to serve as… let's call it bait for Harry. And you refused."

"Exactly," she told him.

He nodded. "Okay, this thing with you serving as bait, your mother can never know of it… or at least not for another decade so the crime prescribes in the meanwhile."

"She won't hear it from me, Daddy," Izzy assured him. "Mom's not so nice towards the messenger these days whenever it is about things she doesn't like."

"She really isn't," he agreed, recalling that morning. "But about this bait thing – did you really have to be unconscious down there? Because it might be nice seeing the bottom of the lake." The loads of stuff he'd be able to do if he had that opportunity when he was a student… Maybe cut a deal with the merpeople for a massive prank…

Izzy chuckled. It was good having her father there.

---

The hour-long wait with few reports of what was happening down at the lake made the whole audience anxious. Worse, Fleur Delacour needing to be rescued from the lake because she had been attacked by water creatures and both Krum and Cedric showing up at the surface with Hermione and Cho Chang respectively before Harry did made everyone even more anxious.

If the seconds passed in a slower fashion after that, time would be going backwards… And then, after what had felt like an hour but was actually a couple of minutes, Harry emerged from the lake carrying not only a barely aware Ron but also a Fleur Delacour's younger sister.

_The kid does know how to make an entrance,_ Sirius thought when he saw Harry swimming to their platform. He managed to push his way through the crowd in order to reach Harry, with Izzy and Ginny on a tow.

It took him a few minutes to arrive there, only to see Fleur Delacour hugging a branket-wrapped Harry as Ron was reluctantly dragged by Madam Pomfrey to the infirmary tent for looking a bit purple after receiving his own hug by Fleur.

"You saved 'er," she said breathlessly. "Even though she was not your 'ostage. Zank you, Harri." Then, she kissed both of his cheeks and when the quarter-veela pulled away, Harry was so red that Sirius thought he might be incandescent.

"Well, isn't it nice, Harry?" he asked his godson with a grin. "Just heroically saved two people and already have a girl ready to kiss you."

"I… er… stop twisting it," Harry told him embarrassedly.

"Come on, if I didn't know you better, I'd say you were just trying to impress the French girl by saving her little sister."

"I couldn't let her down there," Harry said. "She'd drown."

"No, she wouldn't," Izzy told him. "Everyone down there was under a spell that allowed them to breathe underwater until they reached surface. The merpeople would bring them up if their champion didn't get there in time."

"How do you know all that?" Harry asked her.

She sighed. "I was supposed to be in Ron's place. But ended up not going."

"Oh, so the hour limit…"

"Was bogus," Ginny told him. "Probably a way to make sure you didn't waste time."

Harry groaned. "And I was actually worried they'd all drown… Stupid."

Sirius shook his head at the nonsense. "You did good, kid. Saving people's lives seems to be a trend you've settled on." He nodded at Ginny to prove his point, who blushed so hard her face nearly matched her hair.

"I don't actually go look for people to save," Harry mumbled. "It just seems like they land on me. No offence, Ginny."

"None taken. Er… you've got something…" Ginny pointed at his hair and, removing his arm from under the blanker, he reached for whatever she was pointing at, removing a huge piece of seaweed from it.

"Ew," Izzy whispered.

That reminded Harry of her disgust towards seaweeds. "Hey, remember that time when we went to the beach at Lake Winnipeg when you were seven or eight?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow when Izzy took a step back– that trip down memory lane was bound to be interesting…

"Don't you dare…" Izzy warned her godbrother as he took a step towards her, waving the piece of seaweed in front of her. "Keep that thing away from me"

"It's just algae," Ginny pointed out.

"He buried me in it when I was seven!" Izzy countered before glaring at Harry again. "I swear that if that thing as much as touches me or one of these days you'll wake up bald!"

Sirius smiled in amusement. "Kids, remember that you're in school grounds and you can have detention here – save the algae fight for Easter break when you're home."

Harry sighed, throwing the seaweed back to the lake. "Fine – I'm not looking forward for detention, anyway. And for the record, I only buried Izzy because she got sand all over my clothes so I'd get itchy."

His godfather chuckled, patting Izzy's shoulder. "That's my girl. I'm proud."

"I only did it because he called me dumb over something," she pointed out.

"A revenge-prank – even better," Sirius said with a smirk. "Alright, you'll have to excuse me for a moment. I have a Patronus to send to the worried pregnant woman we have back home. Ginny, you look after them while I'm gone."

"Hey!" the two of them chorused.

---

Harry's score came about half an hour later, placing him in first place due to 'showing moral fibber' by saving another hostage along with his own.

It was around half past noon when Sirius apparated on Grimmauld Place's doorstep from Hogwarts. He'd expected to have Mia camping by the door when he arrived to bombard him with questions about the task but she didn't seem to be anywhere near it. _Strange,_he thought, hanging his coat before he went to check where she was.

"Mia," he called on his way up the stairs. "Did you get my Patronus?"

He heard the noise of steps as he reached the second floor and made his way to the third, where he expected to find Mia up there. To his surprise, it wasn't Mia who was waiting there – it was Elizabeth. She and Mia had probably been hanging out up there, then, he assumed.

"Hi, there, Harper," he said. "Came for a visit? You do realize that you're not Mia's favourite person right now, don't you?"

Elizabeth shot him a defying look. "Just sit around and in a few hours you'll be way down on her favourite list compared to me. By the way, Mia did get the Patronus. She mentioned she tried to send one back congratulating Harry but then she got a little… touchy."

"Touchy? Hormone rush touchy?" he asked.

She shook her head. "It's a little beyond hormones, Sirius."

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Elizabeth sighed. "Well, she's been in labour for the past two hours."

**A/N: Cliffhanger ending... good news, half of next chapter is already written, so maybe I'll be able to update earlier. No promises though. Review!**


	34. Arrival

**A/N: Yeah, I really did update ahead of time, in case you're wondering. I guess I was bond to make up for the delay in last chapter and the cliffy in the end of it. Soooo, go ahead and read it.**

'_Well, she's been in labour for the past two hours_.' The words echoed in Sirius's mind over and over and, somehow, they sounded like some sort of foreign language to him – he just couldn't absorb what they meant. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Mia's in labour," Elizabeth repeated slowly. "She's been having contractions for the past two hours and her water broke ten minutes ago."

"She's been in labour for two hours and you didn't send a Patronus asking for me to come immediately?" he asked in disbelief.

"Mia asked me not to. She wanted you to stay with Harry and Izzy," the healer told him. "Besides, these things tend to take their time, Sirius – it wasn't as if she'd pop the baby out in a minute. Anyway, now that you're here, I need to leave for a while to talk to my trainee – she'll be coming to assist me later. Kreacher has already cleared the wards for her to come into the house."

"Wait, you're leaving me alone with her now? What am I supposed to do if… I dunno, she's in pain?"

Elizabeth sighed. "Sirius, it's natural for her to be in pain during the contractions – you've read an authentic library of pregnancy books, so you know that already. Just start thinking straight, be calm, go to Mia and keep her some company, alright? I'll be back in twenty minutes, tops."

He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Okay," he said.

"Good, now get yourself into that room," she said, pointing at the room's closed door.

Sirius frowned. "No need to be pushy, I was going in by myself. My wife's having a baby in there, for Merlin's sake," he said before opening the door and stepping into it.

He'd expected to find Mia lying down on the bed but, to his surprise, she wasn't. Mia was pacing instead, one of her hands resting on her overgrown stomach and the other pressing her lower back. Her back was turned to the door, not allowing her to notice him.

"Hey," he said in a low tone.

She turned around and gave him a soft smile. "Hi. Looks like it's time."

He smiled back. "Yeah, Elizabeth mentioned it. Are you supposed to be walking around the room when you're in labour?"

"Speeds up the process," Mia replied shortly, becoming a little out of breath.

Sirius was immediately alarmed by the sound of her voice and took several steps in her direction as she reached for one of their bed's posters and clutched to it as if she was keeping herself from falling. He put one arm around her, pressing her lower back like she'd been before – he'd read somewhere that it helped – and held her hand, feeling her whole body tense and her breath quickening.

The few seconds before her body relaxed again felt like minutes – maybe hours – in his head and he held her even closer, his heart thumping madly in relief. "Are you alright?" he asked her as she rested her head against his chest.

He felt her nod. "Contraction. It wasn't the strongest one but it caught me off guard." Then, she sighed. "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked her.

"Just for holding me. It didn't feel as bad when you held me," she told him, pulling away so she could look up at him. "Help me get to bed, would you? My back is killing me now."

He placed a quick kiss on her brow and, as she'd asked, led her to bed and helped her get settled on it, propelling several pillows behind her back so she could sit up. Then, he circled the bed and lied by her side.

"Do you need something?" he asked her. "Water? Food? A house-elf to beat up as a way to discharge your frustration over this?"

She chuckled. "Sirius, if I have to beat someone up because of this, it won't be Kreacher. It will be the bloke who impregnated me, who happens to be you."

"I hate to bring this up now, honey, but you were more than willing in the impregnation process," he pointed out.

She glared at him. "Then wouldn't it be fair if we shared the pain? You may not be able to feel it the way I do but getting you a few broken bones and no pain-killing potions might do the deal."

He gulped but didn't respond for a moment. _It's almost over,_ he told himself. _In a few hours she'll be baby-free and in a few days the hormones will be nothing more than a scary memory. _Besides, that wouldn't be the first time she promised him physical harm and, as he recalled, she'd never actually delivered the threats.

Then, he heard his wife sigh. "Tell me about the task."

"Now?" he asked in disbelief. "You're in labour, Mia. Shouldn't you be… you know, focusing?"

She gave him an impatient look. "On what? The painful contractions? No, what I need is to be distracted or else I'll go mad and maybe actually break your bones, which is bad 'cause I need you here with me while I'm having this baby, not in St. Mungos getting multiple fractures fixed. So, fill me in and don't spare the details."

She couldn't have a better point, he thought. So, he did as she said. First, he explained to her what the task mostly consisted of and assured her that everyone was alive and alright. "There's not much to say but that, really," Sirius told her. "It was mostly underwater and we barely got to see anything. I managed to spend a few minutes with Harry before it started – used the time to make sure he knew the bubblehead charm and wish him good luck. Then, I met Izzy and her friends and stayed with them until Harry came out of the water."

"But during the task," Mia inquired, "You just stayed there waiting? Nothing happened?"

He consider for a moment if he should tell her about Fleur Delacour having been attacked underwater… well, he had to or else how would he explain about Harry having saved two hostages instead of just one? "Well," he started, "the Beauxbatons champion, Fleur, was attacked by Grindylows and had to forfeit. But she's alright – mostly it just scared the hell out of her."

"And Harry?" Mia asked anxiously. "Was he attacked too?"

He shook his head. "No. But the kid did pull one of his hero moments – he was the last one to come to surface – almost reached the charm's hour limit – because he decided not only to save Ron but also Fleur's little sister which, by the way, got him first place in the end."

Mia groaned. "Harry thinks too much of everyone but himself for his own good. He could have…" She stopped talking all of a sudden when she felt a contraction building and tried to get ready for it, reaching for her husband's hand.

Sirius looked at her in alarm – as much as he realized contractions were supposed to happen when someone was about to have a baby, watching it made him tense all over. She grasped his hand hard and took deep breaths for a few seconds before it was over.

"Is it over now?" he asked her.

"Yeah, it is," she confirmed, resting one of her hands on her bump. "Sirius, promise me that we'll never let this baby into a tournament like this one."

"Mia, he's not even born yet," Sirius replied.

"He'll be in a few hours," she told him, rubbing the bump. "In a few hours we'll be able to hold him. And I hope he has your eyes."

"I hope he has yours," Sirius replied with a smile. "But just imagine: if we're lucky enough, he'll share his birthday with us. Can you believe it? Three of us being born in February 28th."

In the moment he looked back at her and saw his wife's face, he knew he shouldn't have said it because her eyes were blazing with fury. _Bad move, Sirius,_ he thought. _Very bad move._

"Lucky?" she asked in disbelief. "_Lucky?! _You're hoping I stay in labour over _eleven more hours_ and the baby is born after midnight so he can share his birthday with us?!"

He gulped, moving a few winches away from her. "Of course not, honey… I just…"

"Okay," Elizabeth's voice, in an exaggeratedly chipper tone, said as she stepped into the room. "Sirius you might want to step out of the room because I need to examine her. Why don't you go downstairs and make a few floo calls? I'm sure there are people you need to warn that Mia's in labour."

Sirius nodded, thankful for having been saved, all but jumping out of the bed. Merlin, he had to praise Elizabeth for her timing.

"_Call Lulu!_" he heard his wife shouting from the room as he quickly made his way out of it and down the stairs.

He really couldn't wait for the hormones to be gone.

---

From the kitchen's fireplace, he floo-called Lulu who said she'd come later, as Elizabeth had told him to warn her that it would still be a while before Mia was done. Then he called Remus, whom he and Mia had named the baby's godfather even though he had no idea of it so far, and he promised the same.

It was only after the calls that it actually sunk in him – it was really happening. His wife was having a baby. She was about to give birth and the only thing he could do was sitting by her side holding her hand. What else could he do? He had no idea.

So, he called someone who had to know plenty about dealing with a wife while she gave birth.

"Hey, Molly, Arthur doesn't happen to be there, does he?" he asked Molly Weasley via the floo channel.

"_Oh, yes, he's in the shed. Just give me a minute and I'll get him for you,_" the redhead woman replied with a smile. "_Oh, I almost forgot. How's Mia?_"

"In labour," he replied, not sure of what else to say.

"_Oh, is she?_" Molly inquired. "_Then why are you flooing us instead of being with her? The woman is having your child, for Merlin's sake!"_

"I was with her just a few minutes ago but her healer sent me down while she's being examined," Sirius replied.

"_Oh, I guess that's alright, then. Maybe we'll come by there to give some moral support. You wouldn't mind, would you?_"

"Go ahead," Sirius told her with a shrug. "The more, the merrier."

"_Well, I'll get Arthur for you, just wait a minute."_

And, as promised, a minute later, Arthur Weasley's face was showing up in the fire. _"Sirius, my friend, I heard the time has come."_

"It has," he said with a gulp.

"_Scared __as hell, aren't you?"_ Arthur asked him.

"Terrified," he corrected. _"_I think I could pass out._"_ He stopped for a moment – oh boy. "What if I do pass out?! I don't want to be one of those wimps who pass out while their wives are giving birth!"

Arthur sighed. "_You'll be fine. You won't pass out. Just get yourself together, go in there and hold her hand, do whatever she asks you to as long as it doesn't involve hurting yourself – women can get pretty mean when they're in labour. And remember: if you pass out, you'll never hear the end of it. She'll use that in every children-related argument you have. So don't pass out_."

"Don't pass out – got it," Sirius repeated. "But how do you know what she'll do if I… you know?"

Arthur sighed. _"I passed out when Bill was born."_

"Oh, sorry about that," he told him, a little taken aback. "Well, I'm going in there."

"_Wait,"_ Arthur said. _"Cast a numbing charm the hand you'll give her to hold before she starts to push. Believe me, you're going to need it and she never needs to know."_

"Good idea," Sirius said.

And barely a second after he was out of the floo channel, Elizabeth showed up at the kitchen's entrance. "She's asking for you," the healer announced.

"How long do you reckon before…"

Elizabeth sighed. "I doubt it's anything less than five or six hours 'till she's ready to push. Go up there and hold her – you'd be surprised at how much good it does."

---

The five or six hours turned out to be little over seven and another one of pushing so far, which, considering Izzy had taken almost eighteen hours, wasn't all that bad. But it felt like days for Mia, weeks maybe – amazing how time passed so slowly when one prayed for it to pass as fast as possible.

Sweat and tears covered her face as she breathed erratically before the pain ripped through her again. She was so tired, exhausted. Mia wondered how she had done it once before without taking any potions or some other stuff for the pain – she wanted the bloody drugs now, she couldn't even recall why she had refused them. _Something about them being bad for the baby?_ she tried to remember. But, at the moment, she just wanted the bloody pain to stop.

She pushed once more and, seconds later, she felt herself her back hitting the pillows again. Mia closed her eyes and felt Sirius pulling a few loose strands of hair from her face. "You're doing great, love. Breathe slow now."

She clenched her teeth. "I love you. But if you tell me how to breathe again, I'll kick you so hard in the jewels this will be the last child you'll ever be able to conceive!" And then she felt it again – it didn't even give her time to rest. "Oh, here comes another."

Despite the earlier threat, which he was sure wouldn't ever be made truth, he gave her his numbed hand (something he swore himself never to tell her) and let her grasp as hard as she could until the contraction, now lasting over a minute, was over.

Emotions flood deep inside her like they were forming a whirlpool. Part of her wanted to beat Sirius up to a bloody pulp for getting her pregnant, for making her need to go through that, while the other wanted to kiss him and declare her love for him just for being there – and it confused the hell out of her. Because of his presence, Mia wasn't scared this time – in pain, sure, but who wasn't in that situation? She didn't feel cold and depressed like she had when she'd given birth to their daughter with him locked up in Azkaban. He was there with her this time.

"She's exhausted," she heard Sirius saying worriedly. His voice seemed incredibly distant right now – like he was in the opposite side of a very large room.

"I know she is but we're almost there," Elizabeth replied, her voice as distant as his. "Come on, Mia. Give one big push during the next contraction and I think he'll be out."

_I swear, Elizabeth, I will strangle you if __you're not right_, she thought, unable to speak, as she started to feel the contraction building. Her first instinct was to grasp Sirius's hand again so hard, almost to the point of breaking it. But he didn't complain; he didn't even flinch and she wondered for a single second if he had taken a bloody pain potion himself. _I'll kill him if he did, _she thought. And then she pushed. She pushed so hard that she thought her head might explode with the pressure she felt in it, only to stop when the little cry of a new life echoed in the room. Then, she knew it was over, letting her body relax against the pillows.

The hours of sweat, blood and pain were nothing faced with the happiness that had build inside her at that moment. Mia could feel her husband lacing their fingers together and reaching up to brush his lips on her temple and telling her amazing she was. And she smiled.

Not long after, she felt incredibly light and energized. The world became less blurred until she could see clearly as Elizabeth's trainee, whose name she couldn't recall at the moment, approached her, holding a blanket-wrapped crying bundle.

"It seems you have a healthy baby boy here," the girl told her in a low voice. "Nineteen and a half inches and seven pounds."

It was with tears in her eyes that Mia reached for her newborn son, cradling him against her chest as she enjoyed the feeling of the warm feather-like weight in her arms. As red and wrinkly as he might look right now, her son was, at the moment, the most beautiful being in her world. And the love she felt for him was immense. "Hi," Mia whispered, caressing the whimpering little boy's arm. "Shh, Mummy is here, baby."

_Poor little thing,_ Mia thought, cradling the baby closer. She assumed it must be a shock leaving the little warm world he'd lived in for the past nine months and enter such a big and cold one. The crying subsided slowly until it was gone a minute or two later as the little boy warmed up in his mother's arms. With a smile, Mia looked at Sirius, who seemed completely awestruck. "I'd forgotten how small they were."

"Merlin, I…" he wasn't able to finish, completely speechless. "I really don't know what to say. I think I got brain-freeze."

"'Hi' would be a good way to start," Mia told to him.

Sirius sat on the edge of the bed by her side. He looked down at their newborn son, using his finger to touch the baby's tiny fist. "Hi, there, little guy," he whispered with a wide smile on his face. "I'm your dad."

The baby grasped his finger, making Mia smile and place a kiss on his forehead before turning to her husband. "He needs a name."

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, he does. Have you thought of anything so far?"

She sighed. "I'd been thinking of one but I wasn't sure it would fit until I saw him. Now I think it does. It's simple and not too flourished," Mia said, looking down at her son. "You don't want a long, complicated name, do you, baby?" He raised his tiny arm and Mia decided to take it as a 'yes', considering he was too small to give a more elaborate answer. "Well, I thought of Alex for his name."

"Alex," Sirius repeated to himself. Not only was it a name that would never fit his family's star-related trend but also it fit the baby. _Yeah, I can picture myself calling him Alex. _"It sounds good. It's nice, it's clean. I think we've just found a name for the kid. Alex Gabriel Black."

Mia smiled and looked down at her newborn son. "You like your name, don't you?"

The little boy yawned in and Mia chuckled before turning to Sirius. "Do you want to hold him?"

"It's been a while since I've held a baby," he said, unsure. "He looks so fragile…"

Mia shook her head. "He's not. You'll do okay. Get your arms ready," she told him before, very carefully, passing him the newborn boy.

Sirius moved stiffly at first but, after a few seconds holding his son, he realized Mia was right and the boy was not as fragile as he'd imagined. He got up and paced around the room with little Alex in his arms. The feeling of holding his newborn child was certainly one the best experiences he had had in his life. He wondered how it would have felt to do such when Izzy was born. That was something he would never forgive that blasted Wormtail for – if it wasn't for him, he would have been able to see Izzy grow up and Harry would still have his parents… just like it had been in that dream. He shook his head to clear his mind of that and looked up at Mia with a grin. "You know I love you, don't you?"

"I think I have a little idea," Mia replied, smiling back.

Elizabeth coughed, trying to get their attention. "Sirius, why don't you go show your brand new kid outside while I help Mia getting a little more comfortable? You know, change to fresh clothes, blah, blah," she suggested. "Just bring him back in, let's say, twenty minutes so she can feed him, would you? Oh, and remember that I've already called dibbs on him so don't even think of offering the godmother position to anyone else."

"Wouldn't think of it," Sirius told her absently. Honestly, after the help she'd been that afternoon, he thought Elizabeth deserved more than a godson as thanks gift. He sighed and sat on the edge of the bed near Mia. "Alright, Mummy, say goodbye to the baby for now 'cause he'd going for a walk with Daddy."

Mia smiled and placed a kiss on little Alex's forehead before Sirius took him out of the room. And then she sighed. It had been so worth it.

**A/N: And we've welcomed the youngest member of the Black Family to the world. So, how did you like it? My betas (grr!) didn't have time to check on this chapter, so really I really didn't have any feedback this chapter. So, I'm asking you to fill in for them? Some feedback please! Review!**


	35. Bliss

When Sirius walked into the living room, everyone, meaning Remus, Lulu, Arthur and Molly, seemed to get up at the same time and crowd him to see the new addition to the 'very noble' Black family.

"How did it go?" Molly was the first one to ask.

Merlin, what could he say? Mia had been in pain for hours and screaming bloody murder but she seemed to be fine now just as the baby was. It was the end that mattered, right? "Well, I guess," Sirius murmured, still a bit shaky. "Mia's alright and so is this little guy. Nineteen and a half inches and 7 pounds."

"And what's his name?" Arthur asked.

"Alex Gabriel Black," Sirius informed them proudly.

"Oh, that fits him just right," Molly said with a smile before she started cooing the little boy.

He glanced at Lulu for a moment only to see she was pursing her lips so hard they seemed to have lost all colour. Sirius guessed, even though she'd know of the middle name beforehand, she still was a bit touched by it – the name of her daughter's father and the man she was still in love with, though he was long dead. "Do you want to hold your grandson or not, Gran?" he asked her.

"Right," she mumbled, brushing off whatever she'd been feeling and going back into 'Lulu-mode. "You give me that baby now, Sirius Black."

He chuckled as he passed Alex to his mother-in-law and took one step back – funny how she'd forgotten to glare when he's called her gran. Remus appeared out of nowhere and patted him on the back as the Weasleys fussed some more over his new son along with Lulu. "Congratulation, Padfoot," he said.

"Congratulations to you too, mate," Sirius replied with a grin, patting his friend's back too. "You've just gotten yourself a godson."

Remus's face went blank and he tried to talk several times before he succeeded in making any sound come out of his mouth. "Me? You know I can't, Sirius. I… I'm a were…"

"Oh, shut up, Moony," Sirius told him in a no-nonsense tone. "Don't worry, we won't have you babysitting during full moon."

"Sirius, this is no joke."

"No, it isn't," Sirius told him. "Look, you're my oldest mate now and I don't care if you're a werewolf, a vampire or a bloody banshee – I want you to be my son's godfather. Period."

Remus sighed. "You're not letting this go, are you?"

"Not until my dying day. Look, Izzy doesn't have godparents… or rather she does but they never got to meet her because they were dead already. She was saved for Lily and James even before she was born. I knew that and so did Mia. Just as you and Elizabeth were saved for my second kid and for James' too. So," Sirius pointed at the baby Lulu was holding, "that little bloke is my second kid. He's godson either you say 'yes' or 'no'. Your choice now is between being a crappy godfather who doesn't even acknowledge it or a good one who's there for him. We're not asking for presents and permanent babysitting. We just want you to be there for Alex when we can't. So get over that werewolf complex of yours, mate."

Remus didn't speak for a while. He felt like an arse for trying to refuse at all – he should have none Sirius would never take his 'werewolf-complex' as a plausible reason to refuse becoming the baby's godfather. "You do know how to make a point," Remus mumbled with a sigh.

"So, what's your decision, Moony?" Sirius asked his old friend. "Are you willingly becoming his godfather or do I have to force you?"

Remus sighed. "I know how to recognize a lost battle, Padfoot. So, yes, I guess am willing to do that," he said just as Lulu was approaching Sirius, having passed the baby to a fussing Molly Weasley.

"The kid is a pretty little thing," Lulu announced.

"Handsome," he corrected her. "Boys are handsome, girls are pretty. Thus, my little boy is a handsome little thing. If the next one is a girl, you can call her pretty."

Lulu snorted. "Don't let Mia hear you talking about any more children for the next two weeks or else she may curse you. And your hand looks incredibly swollen – you should have someone check it."

Sirius looked down, to see that his mother-in-law was right – the hand Mia had grasped as she'd pushed the baby seemed to have been hit by an inflating charm and he hadn't even noticed it. "Hurts like hell," he lied. _Thank Merlin for the numbing charm_.

Lulu raised an eyebrow. "You didn't seem to have any problem when you were holding the baby – in fact, you don't seem to be in any sort of pain at all, you bloody liar."

He sighed dramatically – he needed to work on a good save now. "Alright. Maybe… maybe she damaged a nerve in my hand." He turned to Remus. "Oh, Merlin, what if it's permanent?"

"I honestly doubt that," Remus told him – he knew Sirius enough to know when he was lying and, in fact, he was doing it so badly right now that he doubted anyone would be fooled.

Lulu glared. "I'll give you the 'nerve'. You took something for the pain. What was it, a pain-blocking potion? And don't even try to lie to me."

"I'd never…" He stopped talking when her glare intensified and, in Merlin's name, he could swear it looked just like Mia's. "It was just a little numbing spell – I really just didn't want to bother Mia with my complaints in a situation like that."

His mother-in-law shook her head in disbelief – the dog! "I could hex your bits for that, Sirius Black. _Mia_ could hex you ten times worse if she knew it – you wouldn't walk straight for rest of your life."

"Please don't tell her," he begged.

"Live in fear," she said with a sadistic grin.

"Lulu, please!"

Lulu rolled her eyes. "Fine. What would I tell her for? To get her upset after half a day of labour? Besides, I suspect Gabriel did the same when Mia was born. I'm going upstairs to check on her and take that chicken look off your face. I won't tell her. Well, not today at least but tomorrow is another day."

And then she walked out of the room without another word. She wouldn't tell would she? _Nah,_ he thought. _It's Lulu. She'll mock me but she won't tell._ Or at least he hoped so. She liked him after all.

---

Over three hours later, with everyone gone except for Lulu, who'd insisted on sleeping in Grimmauld Place in case she was needed, Sirius was lying in bed holding his wife and watching as she slept. Unlike it had been a few hours before, Mia's face was a pool of peace and he wished he could let her rest like that for a week or so – she damn well deserved the rest after what she'd done just a few hours ago. He, on the other hand, had been in and out of sleep all that time, always checking if both Mia and the baby were alright.

His hand, having been healed by Elizabeth already, touched Mia's hair and he caressed it lightly. Merlin, he loved that woman. It was hard to believe that he had spent the first eleven years of his life without knowing her. That girl who had started out simply as his colleague, to become his friend, his confident and then the woman he loved. These days it was like none wouldn't exist without the other. And yet they had been apart for thirteen years… Right now, that time felt like a distant memory.

Careful not to wake her, Sirius rose from the bed and, for the millionth time that night, approached the bassinet to check on his son, who was lying there surprisingly awake. The baby's little arms were punching the air above him and he let out a little whimper that made Sirius pick him up carefully and cradled him in his arms. The little boy slowly opened his eyes, for the first time as far as Sirius knew, and looked up tiredly at his father as he rocked him softly – Alex's eyes were, like most newborns', still blue and Sirius couldn't help wondering if he would inherit his grey colour or Mia's brown… maybe he wouldn't end up with any of those colours, inheriting it from one of his grandparents' – like Lulu's pale green or, he prayed not, his mother's chilling blue.

Alex let out another whimper and, before it turned into a full crying session, Sirius walked out of the room to the hallway trying not to bother his wife. What was wrong with the kid? It couldn't be his diaper already, could it? He knew for a fact that Lulu had changed it half an hour before. Maybe he was hungry – Mia had fed him over three hours before and a baby that small probably couldn't take much in his stomach.

"Yeah, you're hungry, little guy, aren't you?" he asked the whimpering baby.

He really didn't want to wake Mia already – it was almost sinful even considering it. She needed her rest. Elizabeth had mentioned feeding him from a bottle every once in a while wasn't a bad thing to do.

So, he made his way down to the stairs, holding his son carefully, and went down to the kitchen. He thanked Merlin for Lulu – sometimes it was like the woman was some sort of seer when she wasn't being infuriating – when he saw the bottle ready on the kitchen table with a note attached to it reminding him of how to feed the baby and to have burp after.

He followed his mother-in-law's instructions carefully and half an hour later he was back in his room with the baby only to find his wife now sitting up on the bed, looking around sleepily.

"Sirius?" she asked as she saw him. "Is he awake?"

"Awake, clean and fed," Sirius told her, approaching the bed. "The little bugger was about to throw a fit but I got him on time – he was hungry and I didn't want to wake you."

Mia looked up at him, her lips curling as she did it. "You're a great dad, Sirius Black. You know that, right?"

He grinned back and sat on the edge of the bed. "I do what I can. And you should be resting, Mia. I was hoping you'd sleep through this. You looked exhausted," he stated.

She shook her head. "I'll rest when he's asleep," Mia told him, reaching with a hand to caress her baby's head, covered with very few and very soft darkish hair. "Is it past midnight already?"

Sirius nodded. "As of twenty minutes ago it's officially February 28th so I guess now I can wish you a happy birthday, Mummy."

"Happy birthday to you too," she replied with a soft smile. "Odd how the two of us were born in the exact same day and our son now has his birthday the day before ours."

"I think that was a very nice birthday present for us – it's not every day that we can say we got a son and a birthday cake in a row."

"Definitely not," she replied. "But now it's my turn holding the present, so give him to me, would you?"

Sirius nodded and carefully passed the little boy to his mother, who looked down at him adoringly. She loosened the soft blue blanket that wrapped the baby and pressed a kiss on his forehead. "Hi there, Alex," she whispered to him. "Missed Mummy?" The baby opened his eyes to look up at his mother and she turned to her husband. "Oh, look at him Sirius. He's opened his eyes."

Sirius smiled at her pride. "I've seen it already – he did it earlier while you were sleeping."

"He's so beautiful," she said, looking down at Alex again. "You're gonna be a heartbreaker just like your daddy, aren't you, baby?"

He laughed, getting up to circle the bed and lying by her side again. "I didn't break that much hearts, did I?" he asked her. "Never yours, for instance."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "You did give me a few frights with the whole 'kissing for fun' thing – we were such kids. As if kissing you didn't take my breath away."

"That was mutual, sweetheart," he assured her. "There was something about you that captured me. No matter how many girls I dated, you were the one I always came back to."

"And here we are now," she murmured. "Married and parents of three. Aren't we awfully predictable?"

"Not at all. We, my Mia, will never be predictable," he looked at his son again, who was now yawning, and smiled. "Do you want me to take him so you can rest a little longer?" Sirius asked. "If I can't, I'll wake Lulu and give him to her – she's dying to get her hands on her grandson again. Didn't even glare when I called her 'Gran'."

Mia chuckled. "I guess she's finally getting used to the idea. Took her long enough," she murmured, the tip of her thumb caressing her son's cheek. "And I don't feel tired when I'm holding him in my arms," she whispered before looking up at him. "In the moment I first saw him, it was like the love I already felt for him multiplied by millions. You felt it too, didn't you?"

"It's kind of amazing," Sirius whispered with a sigh, letting Alex's tiny hand grip one of his fingers. "Sometimes, even before Azkaban, I'd imagine how it would be like to have a baby with you." And he'd always imagined he'd get his answer whenever he and Mia's first child was born which, thanks to bloody Voldemort, Wormtail and the idiots who's sent him to prison, hadn't happened. He'd never got the chance to see his daughter, his Izzybel, born. He hadn't gotten the chance to love her since her heart beat for the first time like he'd had with that baby.

"Did it live up to the expectations?" his wife enquired him.

He shook his head. "It was so much better. I think I fell in love with you all over again. I'll treat you like a bloody queen from now on, Mia."

Mia chuckled. "You've sort of been treating me like one for the past few months already. And don't curse – there are little ears in the room."

"Oh, sorry about that," he mumbled. "So, I forgot to tell you that Lulu floo-called Hogwarts earlier, you know? To let Dumbledore know the baby had been born so he could tell the kids in the morning and well, he's giving us out own birthday present."

"A birthday present?"

"Exactly. He'll allow Harry and Izzy to some here to see us and to meet the baby."

Mia's face lit up even more. "Really?"

"Yep," he confirmed with a grin. "Tomorrow, or rather today because it's after midnight, Izzy and Harry will be here to meet their little brother. And your face tells me you're as happy about it as I am."

"Of course I am. All my babies will be home," she told him with a smile.

"And you want to be awake when they do, don't you?"

She sighed. "Yes, I do. But I'd rather you were awake too so I'm not the only one who needs to go to sleep in this room. In fact, all three of us should."

"Well, seems like one of us is nearly getting there," he told her, nodding at their now sleeping son. "Let me get him to his bassinet so we can join him in dreamland."

Mia moved very carefully so the baby wouldn't drift out of his sleep and, when Sirius took Alex away, she lied further on the bed.

Her husband joined her seconds later and, letting him wrap his arms around her, she let herself relax against him and was out like a light.

---

"Wait, really? _Really?_" Izzy asked her headmaster as she and Harry sat in his office in the following morning.

"Yes, Miss Black," Dumbledore told her with a smile. "Your brother was born last night and everything went smoothly."

"So I'm a big sister now?"

"Indeed you are, Miss Black," the headmaster confirmed.

"Does he have a name already?" Harry inquired.

Dumbledore nodded. "Alex, I believe."

"Alex," Izzy repeated thoughtfully. "My baby brother, Alex. It sounds nice. When are they bringing him for us to meet, professor?"

"Do we have to wait for the next Hogsmeade visit or are they coming sooner?" Harry inquired.

"Actually, Mr. Potter, they won't bring him for you to see. You will be the ones who'll go home to meet him – today."

Izzy opened her eyes wide. "Today? We get to go home today?"

"Yes, Miss Black," Dumbledore told her. "Minerva was kind enough to offer to escort you two home so you would meet your brother. You'll need to be back in time for dinner today, though."

"Th…thank you, professor," Harry said.

"There is no need to thank me, Mr. Potter," the Headmaster told him. After all, he did know how precious family was – especially how much it meant for a boy with a life as complicated as Harry's. "Now, Minerva is waiting for you in her office and she'll go with you via floo to Grimmauld Place. And please do pass along my congratulations to Sirius and Amelia when you see them."

"We will, Professor," Harry promised before tugging Izzy's arm and the two of them left the office in a hurry.

---

Mia sat up in bed grinning in amusement as Elizabeth cooed her son making silly voices.

"Would you mind if I borrowed him for just a day or two?" the blonde asked her as she rocked her godson. "I don't feel like giving him back now – I think I'm hooked on baby smell."

Mia laughed at the metaphor. "Then, as your friend, it is my duty not to feed your addiction, Elizabeth. Give the baby back."

"Yeah, Harper, get one of your own if you want to take a baby home," Sirius joked as he got up from his seat on the edge of the bed to get his son back.

Elizabeth sighed as she passed Alex back to him. "You know, I sometimes I feel like doing just that but there's no man in the picture."

"So, go get one," Sirius told her as he passed the little boy back to Mia and went to sit on the rocking chair that had been placed in the room. "I think we should make a move on Moony – he needs a girl, you need a guy. It's pure math."

The healer rolled her eyes. "Sirius, you know that I've only ever liked Remus as a friend. Nothing more than that. I don't just go around having kids with the first unmarried friend that pops out."

"She has a point," Mia provided just as a knock on the door sounded.

"Is it safe to come in?" Izzy's voice sounded through the door.

"It's as safe as it gets," Sirius replied with a chuckle.

The door opened and his daughter came in, followed by Harry.

"Hi," Harry said.

"Happy birthday," Izzy wished her parents.

"Er… yeah, that too," Harry mumbled. "Happy birthday."

"Hey and thank you," Mia replied with a smile. "There's someone here who wants to meet you."

Izzy's face lit up when she saw her mother holding the baby and she stepped closer to the bed to get a better glimpse of her little brother as Elizabeth excused herself out of the room to give them privacy.

"Oh, he's so small," she whispered with a chuckle as the little boy looked up at her in puzzlement – it was like he was trying to see right through her. "Hi there, little brother. Was I ever that small and wrinkly?"

"Barely an inch bigger and yes, you were very wrinkly. But I thought you were as pretty as a butterfly," Mia informed her with a smile before turning to Harry, who sat by Izzy's side on the edge of the bed. "You were practically as small as he is and the first baby I'd ever held. I was scared to death but Lily made me do it."

"Really?" he asked. It was sort to think of himself as a baby. But it felt warm thinking of his mother, Lily Potter. Thinking she'd once been so blissfully happy holding him like Mia was with Alex right now. It made him, somehow, feel closer to her and, at the same time, closer to his godmother. As confusing as it might be, he liked it.

Mia nodded. "Yes – she wanted me to be holding you when she told me that I'd be your godmother. You felt so small and were all wrinkly too."

"But Prongs kept bragging that you looked just like him," Sirius added with snort from his armchair. "He wasn't that far from the truth but you really couldn't tell it at the time."

"Well, I think Alex looks like you already, Daddy," Izzy told him.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "He does? How so?" He'd been looking at the baby all morning but hadn't found anything but soft baby-like features so far that were impossible to figure out who he's gotten them from.

"The eyes, I guess," Izzy told him.

"Yeah, their shape is sort of similar. Can't really tell the colour, though," Harry mumbled, reaching to see the baby better. It was sort of funny the way the kid kept wriggling and opening a closing his minuscule fists, sometimes trying to get hold of the loosen tips of Mia's hair.

Mia chuckled. "Well, he'll grow eventually and we'll all see who he looks like."

"Yeah, he'd better get bigger," Izzy said, reaching to touch the baby's arm – it felt as soft as pure satin. "I can't wait 'til he's old enough to play. Do you think it's safe for me to hold him?"

"As long as you're careful, he should be alright," Mia told her with a smile, helping her get the baby into her arms.

Sirius watched the scene from the armchair by the window with a silly grin in his face. Thinking one year before he'd been living caves without any idea that he had a family waiting for him out there. Life did change all of a sudden. For better in his case. So, he rose from the armchair and joined his family, thankful he now had one at all.

**A/N: Another huge chapter (really, I keep saying not to get used to it but I always end up doing it...). Next chapter will skip a few months, just let me warn you and a little twist (nothing too bad) will come up. I really hope you liked this chapter - more will come soon. Some feedback, please. Review!**


	36. The Return

**June 24****, 1995 – Third Task**

Mia could feel her heart thumping so hard it might explode as she stared at the maze. Just because Fleur and Krum had needed rescuing almost an hour before and the latter had been, somehow, under the Imperious Curse and there was still no sign of Harry or Cedric it didn't have to mean anything bad… right? _Well, of course it means something bad!_ The Imperious Curse was no kids play – something had to be very wrong for it to have been casted in the middle of the task.

How she wished she had Alex there – holding her baby always made her feel like everything in the world was so much easier. But he wasn't there. No, her baby was at home with his grandma Lulu likely sleeping soundly in his cot oblivious to anything that might be happening to his older brother.

So, she reached for Sirius's hand and grasped it, only to have him grasping hers back and pressing a kiss near her ear. He was still as much of a source of comfort as he'd ever been.

"What's wrong?" he asked, though he was pretty aware of what it was.

"I have a bad feeling, Sirius," she told him in a whisper. "I really do. I don't think it's going to be as easy this time as it has been."

He gulped, unable to tell her she was talking nonsense. He had the bad feeling too – like something terrible was happening. So, he just stroked her arm and, when she looked him in the eyes, he could tell she was aware that he was thinking of the same.

And then all hell broke loose. There was a flash of light by the entrance of the maze and out of nowhere Harry appeared clutching the Triwizard Cup and Cedric's apparently unconscious form. Despite the cheers all around her, Mia knew for sure something was very wrong in the moment she saw her godson. Sirius got up and tried to leave the stands, pulling her behind him by the arm. The crowd was mad, nearly impossible to get through and nobody seemed to realize there was no reason for cheering until screams of girls echoed in the front.

The minutes that took her and Sirius to break through the mob and reach the entrance of the maze felt unbelievably tense. And, when they got there, Dumbledore made his way to them quickly with a sober look in his face.

"What happened? What the hell happened?" Mia asked him, nearly hysterically.

"Cedric Diggory is dead," he told them soberly.

"H…how?" Sirius asked him, feeling an unbearable weight in his throat. Harry had been there too. It could have been him. Harry could have been the one dead.

"We are not sure yet," the headmaster told them. "But the cup was clearly turned into some sort of portkey that took Harry and Mr. Diggory somewhere else."

"Why do I feel like you're not telling us everything?" Sirius asked him with a gulp.

Dumbledore looked down for a moment, trying to find the words to say it, and then lifted his head. "Harry told me he's back. Voldemort is back and Harry saw it. It seems it was the whole purpose of the portkey."

Mia covered her mouth with her hand as if to keep a scream from coming out. No, no. It couldn't be! He couldn't be back. She tried to believe it wasn't true but she couldn't… Harry would never lie about it, nor would Dumbledore. No, she wasn't that lucky…"He's back… Harry saw…" She looked around, trying to find him. "Where is he? Where is my godson? He needs us now!"

Dumbledore turned around to point them somewhere but then stopped in confusion. He was gone – just a moment ago Harry had been standing by Alastor and now they were both gone. "Charity," he called for the Muggle Studies teacher, Charity Burbage, who was nearby trying to keep the students from huddling around Cedric's body. "Where is Mr Potter and Alastor?"

"Why, he took Potter!" she said in confusion. "I heard him telling Fillius you'd asked him to get Potter away from this madness and take him to the castle, headmaster."

"No, I don't believe I've ever told him that," Dumbledore mumbled, putting the pieces together in his head. So that was what had happened…

"Why would Mad-Eye lie about that?" Mia asked him.

"He wouldn't," Dumbledore told him in a fairly certain tone, removing his wand from his robes. "Not Alastor Moody."

Sirius was confused for a moment. What did that mean? Not Alas… and then it hit him. "You… you think he's an impostor?"

"I _know_ he is," Dumbledore told him, already making his way to one of the stadium's exits as they followed. "We need to get to them as fast as we can."

With all the grief that was going on, the way to castle seemed to become ten times longer than it actually was, which only made the panic inside Mia grow larger. Now it all made sense. It had been him all along. They'd trusted Moody, or who they believed to be Moody, with Harry's life.

Dumbledore, now flanked by McGonagall and Snape, to Sirius's surprise, lead them to the DADA office and didn't even bother to knock – the door was blasted out of the way and though the opening they saw 'Moody' pointing his wand at Harry. But Dumbledore was faster – even before the impostor realized the door had been blown up, he was already dropping on the floor stunned.

"Let us through!" Mia yelled, passing through the professors as fast as she could only to reach her godson and pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. And she finally breathed in relief – he was alive.

She pulled away about a minute later, her eyes red from being shut but not teary. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Harry gulped before answering and glanced at the stunned impostor. "No. He… he serves him. Voldemort. Moody serves him." There was a look of disbelief on his face as he said that.

"No. That's not Moody," Sirius told him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Someone's been posing as him."

"Posing?"

"Polijuice potion," Dumbledore declared behind Sirius, holding a little vial that had been in the impostor's truck with a muddy liquid in it that Harry couldn't help recognizing from his second year.

"He was plotting this all year," Harry mumbled. "He had a plan to bring Voldemort back and it worked. He's back. Wormtail helped him." His face shifted to pain. "He was the one who killed Cedric!"

Sirius gritted his teeth inside his mouth. The bloody bastard. For a moment, he wished he and Remus had killed that piece of garbage in the previous year when they had the chance. He promised himself that one day he'd be the one to put an end to Wormtail. Either it was by killing him, helping someone do it or by delivering him to the Dementors for the kiss, he'd be the one to take the smile out of that miserable rat's face. But he didn't utter a word about it, what good would that make right now?

So, he just watched as his wife hugged Harry comfortingly, telling him she was sorry – that he was safe now. And wished that was the truth.

---

All had been cleared now and all made sense. It was Barty Crouch Jr., the late Barty Crouch Sr.'s allegedly dead son. He'd confessed during the Veritaserum-driven interrogation that he'd not only plotted Voldemort's return and kept Alastor Moody captive for a whole year but also had killed his own father after the second task.

Mia thought of all that when she woke up in the following morning. And she wished it was a nightmare – a long painful one that could be gone now that she was awake. She wished she could just get up at home, check on little Alex and then go back to her husband's sleepy embrace like always, having all of that be just a memory of a bad dream.

But it wasn't. She was still in Hogwarts' hospital wing, where she'd stayed all night long with Sirius, watching over Harry, who was deeply asleep in the bed next to hers. It had been no dream. Cedric was dead, Harry would carry that with him forever.

"Hey," she heard her husband's familiar voice saying. She sat up and turned to her side to see Sirius there sitting on a chair. Like Mia, he had refused to leave Harry that night. "He's still out. Pomfrey says the potion probably won't wear off for another hour."

Mia nodded. "It's better for him to be asleep right now." Then, she sighed. "What will we do now, Sirius? He's back. It will be the war all over again. We have kids now, we are finally together. I… I can bear losing you all over again or any of the kids…"

"You won't," Sirius told her, reaching for her hand and grasping it in a comforting fashion like he'd done in the previous day. "We will be alright – all of us. We'll fight for it to happen, Mia."

"You don't know that," she whispered.

"No, but I believe it," he replied, moving from the chair for the edge or her bed. "That's halfway there. If we go into the fight with no hope, we might as well be dead. You know that, Mia."

She sighed. "I hate this."

"That makes two of us," he told her, kissing her forehead. "Dumbledore came by earlier – he asked for us to go to his office around eight, which is in half an hour."

Mia nodded. "Okay. But shouldn't we go home before? Check on Alex…"

"Already done that," Sirius told her. "I went there in time for his five in the morning feeding to make sure everything was alright. Lulu said she wants you home by noon – she doesn't want you to forget about taking care of yourself. Now, we should go grab some breakfast before going to the meeting."

"Wait," Mia told him. "I need to do something before."

"What?"

"This," she said, wrapping her arms around his torso in a hug and resting her head on his shoulder. "Hold me for a minute – it makes everything feel easier."

He nodded, hugging her back tightly. "Okay."

---

It was barely nine and Harry had only just been awake for the past twenty minutes. Yet, half the Gryffindor tower had already paid him a visit, not to mention the non-Gryffindors…

Some them were welcome, mainly Ron and Hermione, the twins and, for a minute or two, Izzy who'd been practically shooed out by Madam Pomfrey along with a group of giggly third-years as soon as she entered the infirmary. But mostly, the visitors just went there to ask how he was, to say they were sorry, that he had nothing to do with Cedric's death or simply just to ask if You-Know-Who was really back and he wished they'd just stayed away.

That was why he'd frowned when he heard the sound of footsteps not heavy enough to belong to a teacher or to his godparents. He pretended to be asleep – hopefully that would send whomever it was away, well, if Madam Pomfrey didn't do that for yourself.

He heard a chuckle. "Do you usually sleep with your glasses on or are you just pretending?" a familiar voice asked. Ginny. Well, at least it wasn't anyone unbearable.

He opened his eyes and saw her taking a seat on the chair by the bed. "I thought it might be that Vane girl and her friends again," he told her. "Sorry."

Ginny shrugged. "No problem. Just make sure you get your glasses off next time you want to pretend you're asleep. Izzy mentioned this place was rather crowded when she came – I was going to meet her head but everyone had been kicked out in the meanwhile."

"I'll have to thank her for that," he mumbled.

She nodded in understanding. "So, how are you doing?"

He huffed. "That's the number one hit in the question list this morning. Followed by 'Was it scary facing You-know-who?'."

The redhead shook her head. "I imagine that's true. People seem to have a sick interest for tragedies. But how many of the people who asked it have actually been as near him as any of us have? You don't have to worry about me asking you how scary it was."

For a moment, her statement brought confusion to his mind. Ginny near him? And then he remembered it. The chamber. Sometimes he just couldn't relate that Ginny with the little redhead girl he'd saved from the chamber two years before. They seemed so far apart now. It felt so long ago. She was probably the one person who's visited him that morning who could know, or at least imagine accurately, how it had felt like.

"So, do you want to talk about it or am I wasting my time?" she asked him.

He sighed. "I feel fine."

"Okay," Ginny said with a nod. "And do you feel about feeling fine?"

In another situation, that question wouldn't have made any sense. It would have been a pleonasm. But he understood it. "I feel like I shouldn't – it doesn't make sense." He sighed. "I saw him die. Cedric. Actually die. And I didn't get anything more than a bloody cut in my arm. He shouldn't have been there in the first place – I was the one who said we could touch the cup at the same time and share the victory. And everyone keeps telling me I have nothing to do with him dying. I told him to touch the cup – it's like I pulled the plug. I started what caused him to die and they say I shouldn't feel guilty for it."

"But you are guilty of it," she told him. It wasn't an accusation – he knew that much. She was speaking from experience – voicing what a part of his mind was telling him. "If you hadn't told him to touch the cup, Cedric would be alive. If I had turned in the diary when it spoke to me, four students, a ghost and a cat wouldn't have been petrified for months."

Harry looked away from her, pleased and annoyed at the same time that she understood the feeling. "They didn't actually die in your case. That makes it easier to deal with."

"Easier, Harry? You think it's easier?! They were _supposed_ to die," she told him, her voice distressed. How could he have not gotten it yet? "That basilisk was meant to _kill_, not to petrify! Voldemort didn't want pretty temporary statues, he wanted dead bodies pilling up. They didn't die because of a twist of fate… they got lucky – if they had turned in the wrong moment, looked, and saw the basilisk's eyes directly, I'd have gotten them killed. Four people, Harry. Join you almost dying to save me and that makes five. Merlin knows there might have been more! And you were not the one holding the weapon at Cedric while _I_ was pointing it to them, possessed or not. A 50 feet long basilisk." She stopped talking for several moment to let herself calm down.

He didn't know what to say faced with that. All her points were valid. She hadn't actually killed anyone but now he could see it had been practically as bad for her as it was being for him…

"There's always a part of you telling you that you're guilty when you go through what you did or when you get close enough like I did. Other people don't understand it, so they tell you the opposite, which is worse."

Harry sighed. "Does it ever go away? The guilt."

"I don't think it does. It's there as long as you remember it or maybe just as long as you have a soul. But it gets easier to deal with and I like to think that, eventually, it stops haunting you."

"Thanks," he said. "For understanding."

She wished couldn't, that she hadn't had to learn how to deal with it. "You're welcome. Now, do you want to tell me about it? Trade stories?"

"Does it help?"

Ginny shrugged. "I wouldn't know. But at least it lets you know you're not the only one with a bad story to tell, right?"

---

Meanwhile, a meeting was going on in the headmaster's office.

Dumbledore wanted to bring the Order of the Phoenix back. It was necessary, he had said, if they intended to fight back. And neither Sirius nor Mia could disagree. Even though the order reminded of a time when they were sure of nothing, if they'd live another day or if every time they kissed goodbye in the morning would be the last, bringing the order back again was their best shot at fighting back.

"We'll need to gather new members," a still very pale-looking Moody, not quite recovered from the long incarceration he'd been in until the previous night, stated.

"Yes, I had thought of that," Dumbledore told him with a nod. "But first we need to know how many members from the previous Order want to be in it this time. I think we should make the silent calling."

"Albus, you need to consider than not so many of them will notice it at all," McGonagall told him. "It's been years since that call was used." The silent calling had been a way to call the order's members, especially those who worked near the ministry or potential Death Eaters so they wouldn't call attention whenever summoned by the Order. It worked more or less like the dark mark, though it wasn't anywhere near being branded on one's skin. No, it was a small symbol, a triangle that was the ancient symbol of fire, that was marked on an object belonging to the Order member. It would glow softly and feel warm whenever they were needed in the order and, if they touched the symbol with their wand and then a piece of parchment, the place where they were being summoned would be indicated in it, only for them to see. Sirius or Mia had never needed it themselves just as Remus, Elizabeth and Wormtail hadn't. But they knew James and Lily had used it. And McGonagall was right – the odds of having lost the object in the meanwhile were large.

"Minerva, I just want to see how many people respond to us this way," Dumbledore told her. "We can also contact them personally, though the other way would be more… discreet." He turned to Sirius and Mia. "I assume you have no problem with talking to Remus and Ms. Harper and other older members you remember. I think it would be wise not to have them all contacted by the same person."

Sirius shook his head. "No problem. We can do that."

Dumbledore nodded, reaching for a drawer of his desk. "Thank you. That's very helpful. Minerva, Alastor and I can take care of the rest, I believe." He took out a piece of parchment and wrote something on it. "Well, I will make the first meeting in a week at the Shrieking Shack as we still do not have suitable headquarters."

And then, he patted his wand on the parchment, casting the spell without a word and, at that moment, the Order of the Phoenix was back.

---

Thousands of miles away, in another continent, the triangle that was the symbol of fire burned in the back of a watch. Its owner looked at the little object in surprise as he felt the bearable heat touching his skin. Now that was something he hadn't felt in years.

He'd been dead for a long time. Over a decade, to be accurate. He might still have a heartbeat, still be able to breathe but he was, to the world, and also to himself, a dead man. He'd lost everything. The war had destroyed it all as it had destroyed him. He was little more than a ghost.

And now he was being called back to the world of the living. _Ironic_, he thought. He doubted they even knew they had summoned him – probably guessed he was actually dead. Why wouldn't they? It was what everyone thought. So, should he go back? Should he bother? He had no reason to leave that place. It would blow his cover, not that he was so attached to it at all. He only cared for being alive out of respect for the person who'd saved him.

But they wouldn't have called the Order of the Phoenix back if it wasn't important… Merlin, a twisted part of him wished it was bad, wished he was being summoned to go fight those bastards who had destroyed what he'd held most dear. Yes, that was a good reason to go. If not for anything else, revenge. He'd make them pay.

So, he decided. He'd bring himself back to life, at least as far as the world knew. Because, there or anywhere else, he still felt dead in the inside.

**A/N: Half a day late, but it's here. Well, I got held up writing a future chapter (when inspiration comes, you can't stop it...) I hope you liked the little teaser in the end. Any thoughts? I'm curious about finding out if any of you gets who 'he' is right. Send some feedback. Review!**


	37. Clearance

**A/N: Sorry, had to take it just for a little editing (I couldn't replace it). Nothing major...**

A week had passed since the morning after the third task and Harry and Izzy had made it back home for their Summer Break in the previous day.

Though both Sirius and Mia felt incredibly tense due to the announcement of Voldemort's return, there had been no sign of Death Eater activity other than what had happened in the cemetery.

Harry had been slowly coping with what had happened with his friends', mostly Ginny's, help. It seemed to make things easier to deal with when he could talk to someone who understood by experience what he'd been through and, unlike everyone close to him had feared, he hadn't closed himself to the world.

In the meanwhile, through the whole week members of the first Order of the Phoenix had been contacted for the new order's first meeting and new ones had been recruited.

Early in the morning of the day of the reunion, Mia entered the nursery to see little Alex was still asleep in his cot. She smiled down at the baby as she watched him sleep peacefully. Every day he looked more like Sirius: the soft hair in his head was very dark just like his father's and his eyes, though closed now, were getting greyer and greyer every day.

She reached with her hand to caress his soft cheek and the little boy moved his legs, though he didn't wake up. He looked so innocent now, living in his own world of dreams. He had no idea of the terror that might be rising outside at any moment, while Mia, as much as she and Sirius tried to make everything feel normal around Harry and Izzy, couldn't help feeling that knot in her throat.

Alex moved again in his sleep, this time his arm and she removed her hand. _Better let him sleep now_, she thought. _Poor baby_. He'd been restless on and off all night because of the teething. Only around three in the morning, which had been a couple of hours before, they'd managed to get to sleep and not wake up again forty minutes later again.

She turned around to leaved the room and saw Sirius standing by the doorway, smiling at her tiredly – none of them had slept much that night either. She wrapped her arms around him and he kissed the top of her head.

"Is he okay?" Sirius asked her, pulling away to close the nursery's door so the baby wouldn't be disturbed.

Mia nodded. "Out like a rock. I wish I could be too."

"Then let's get you back to bed," he said, putting an arm around her and walking with her the short distance to their room. "We still have at least three hours before the kids are awake, unless they decide to make it an early morning."

She nodded as her head rested against his shoulder and sat on the bed when she reached it, lying down as her husband walked across it to do the same. They turned to their sides, facing each other in the bed.

"Do you feel okay now?" Sirius asked her a whisper.

She nodded. "Yes. I'm just so bloody tired."

"You know, I was thinking that we could get ourselves a little week of vacations," Sirius told her. "Just you, me, the kids and, well, maybe even Lulu is she wants to…"

Mia sighed with her eyes closed. "Somewhere in an island as Muggles. Just as long as there are at least three countries between it and Britain."

"Your wish is an order, Mrs. Black. It would be a good way to finish that year just to ourselves that we took last year," Sirius said. "In September you'll be teaching again in a morning-only schedule and I probably will be working too." He groaned internally. _You really need to start working on finding a job_. Not that he actually needed paying – Merlin knew he had two vaults in Gringotts, his and his family's, that would keep him living large for all eternity. But with Mia working too, staying at home all day-long would annoy him at some point.

"Yeah," she murmured, half-asleep. "Can we talk about this later? I think I'm… not quite awake."

"Sure," he said, pulling her closed so she could use his chest as a pillow. He kissed her soft hair and, minutes later, clinging to each other, they were asleep.

---

Later, refreshed from the few hours of continuous sleep, they sat with the kids at the kitchen table finishing their breakfast.

"Elizabeth's dad will be keeping Alex and you're going to stay at the Burrow this afternoon while we are in our meeting," Mia was telling Harry and Izzy as she fed little Alex, who seemed to care more about pulling the tips of her hair than in eating. She tried to free her hair from the little fist and the baby gave her what seemed to be an annoyed look that seemed looked ridiculously cute in a face that small. What was it about that baby that made everyone want to just look at him endlessly? It was with effort that Mia managed to look up from Alex to Harry and Izzy again. "Percy will be looking after you."

"Percy?!" Izzy asked her mother in disbelief. "Why does Percy of all people have to be the one watching over us? He's… Count Boredom. Fred and George are off age already. They could watch us without making us want to hide hole."

Mia raised an eyebrow before she shoved a spoon full of baby food into Alex's mouth. "Sure. And a few hours later we'd be rescuing you from the ruins of the Burrow."

"They can't be that bad," Sirius defended.

"Really? What would you and James do if you saw yourselves alone at home looking after four underage kids?"

_Play a massive prank on them,_ he thought instinctively. But, thank Merlin, didn't voice it, turning to Izzy instead. "Just remember that there are six of you non-boring people and only one of him."

"Yeah, Fred and George can do magic. Maybe they'll be able to stun him and lock him in the shed," Izzy mumbled.

"Don't you dare, Isabelle Black," her mother warned her.

There was silence for a moment or two before Harry spoke for the first time. "So, what will you do in that meeting you have?" Harry asked them, trying to sound uninterested by poking the eggs on his plate. "Does it have to do with him? Voldemort?"

Sirius sighed. "We can't tell you yet, kid. But we will as soon as we get cleared for it."

"So it _is_ about him," Izzy concluded. They wouldn't have all that secrecy if it wasn't about him.

"We didn't say that and we're not cleared to talk about it with any of you," Mia told her, putting the plate of baby food down and passing Alex to Izzy. She knew her daughter was as hopeless towards her baby brother's effect as she was and, like Mia had predicted, seconds later Izzy had all but forgotten the discussion and started with the baby noises.

But Harry hadn't. "What is that clearance for? I'm not a little kid anymore!" Harry interjected. "I've faced him what? Four times now? I think that gives me the right to know what people are doing about him."

"We know that, Harry," Sirius told him.

"Then why don't you tell me what is going on?"

"We want to, Harry, but we are not the ones in charge in this," Mia told him. "We know you are not a child anymore and, as much as we'd like to protect you from reality, we know we can't. That's why we'll _insist_ you're told about… this so you're prepared for whatever comes."

"And what's coming?" he inquired.

"If only we knew that, kid…" his godfather said.

"But whatever it is, Harry, we can't have you playing hero. We shouldn't keep you in the dark but you can't keep us either, Harry. This needs to go _both ways_ like it did last year with the tournament. If anything happens, you or, if you can't, Izzy or one of your friends come to us before you go ahead and put your life in danger. There are people whose purpose is to help you so don't start thinking you're alone in this take matters on your own. You may not be a little kid but you're still a kid and shouldn't handle everything by yourself."

"I will come to you," he promised with a sigh. "But I have to know that you're doing something and I have to know what is going on." He looked down at his plate. They weren't the bad guys in the middle of all that and he'd acted like they were. "And I'm sorry for snapping."

Shaking his head, Sirius patted his back. "Kid, you've earned the right to snap every once in a while. First, because of all the stuff you've been going through. Second, because you're a teenager."

"Thanks," Harry mumbled before finally looking up.

"So, do we have an understanding here?" he asked. "Anything out of the ordinary, you come to us. Never mind if that happens while you were breaking school rules. I think they are the least of our worries right now." He turned to Mia, looking for an agreement

She huffed. "At this point, I guess they are." Then, she looked at Harry. "But don't push it."

He nodded. "I'll try and yeah, I guess that's a fair deal."

"Er, will that apply to the rest of us or will we be kept in the dark?" Izzy asked as she passed the baby back to her mother, after remaining silent nearly the whole discussion. Sirius and Mia gave her confused looks so she continued. "Whatever you're going to, Ron and Ginny's parents are too. I know it's not as… personal to us as it is for Harry but we should know what is going on. If not or anything else, because we care and we'll go mad if we keep trying to guess whatever you're doing."

Mia sighed. "We'll see what we can do, Izzy," she promised.

"Even you don't get clearance, we'll end up finding out anyway," Izzy told her with a shrug. "Don't ask me how but we will."

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Mia murmured.

Suddenly, Harry wrinkled his nose and eyed little Alex in suspicion. "Does something smell in here or is it just me imagining it?"

"Diaper-changing time," Sirius announced, mock glaring across the table at his squealing infant son. "How can you be that small and do something nearly as smelly as Knockturn Alley, little man?" Then, he turned to his wife. "It's your turn changing him. I did it last time."

Mia rolled her eyes and got up, carrying the baby. "Amazing how you always wrestle me for any baby-related activity except for diaper changing," she said before turning around and making her way to the door.

Sirius looked at the kids and grinned. "It was _my_ turn. But I guess she didn't remember it."

"That's low," Harry told him.

"Really low," Izzy agreed, shaking her head in disapproval.

"Yeah, right, Miss 'if you don't tell us what's going on we'll get a very suspicious and potentially dangerous way to find you'," Sirius countered with a chuckle. "That's close to blackmail. And, as proud as it may make me, also low."

"I wasn't blackmailing anyone," she told him. "I was just telling you… wait, you're just trying to distract me. You know what? Maybe I'll tell Mom it was your turn just to get you in trouble."

"No, you won't. You like me too much Izzybel," he replied, grinning.

---

Though as gloomy as usual, Sirius couldn't help noticing that the interior of the Shrieking Shack had been deeply cleaned for the occasion. Unlike it had been little over a year before when they had confronted Wormtail in that same place there wasn't a single bit of dust, a broken piece of furniture or a ripped curtain. Hogwarts' house-elves had been busy, he could see. The only signs that something vicious had been in there were the badly hidden deep scratches on the walls.

Very few people of the first order could be seen there but, then again, not that many had survived to see the second one rise… Apart from the Hogwarts' teachers, himself, Mia and Lulu, Sirius could see little over half a dozen old members so far. Remus and Elizabeth still weren't there but he knew they'd show up at some point, so he counted them too. It didn't feel the same – not without Lily and James there.

"Oh, Sirius, Amelia, I was just looking for you," Dumbledore's familiar voice said behind them as he approached them from the place where he'd been standing talking to McGonagall. "How's young Harry doing now? Minerva and I were quite worried about his emotional recovery after what he witnessed."

"He's coping," Mia said softly. Every time she said that, she couldn't help feeling hugely relieved. How wrong could that have turned out? "But he wants to know what we're doing. In fact, they all want to know: Harry, Izzy, Ron, Ginny…"

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, I had been thinking whether it would be wise to tell them about the Order and I've concluded that it is safer to do that. We all know what Mr. Potter and his friends tend to do when they want to know something."

"Well, they are curious kids," Sirius said naturally. Merlin knew he and his own friends had been quite like them before… except for the several near-dead experiences.

"I'd also like to discuss something else with you, Sirius," Dumbledore told him. "Is it safe to say that you still haven't found any job?"

"Couldn't be safer. Why?"

"Well, we are in need of a Quidditch coach at the school. I know that you're trained as a curse-breaker and if you'd rather find something in your area, I'd completely understand. But Minerva still dreams about the four Quidditch cups in a row that you and James Potter won for Gryffindor and that is a rather good point in your favour."

"But what happened to Madam Hooch?" Mia asked.

Dumbledore sighed. "Rolanda has received a very good job proposal from a professional Quidditch team. They were quite desperate for a single win and would pay a small fortune for some basic training. Obviously, she had accepted the proposal."

"Wait, desperate for a single win… do you mean the Chudley Cannons?" Sirius asked in amusement. "The Cannons hired a woman who teaches Quidditch to little kids as their new coach? Ron's just going to love hearing that."

The headmaster nodded. "I'm afraid in all my years of life I've never seen them win a single game. I used to support them in my youth but eventually had to give up… Furthermore, Sirius, would you like the position for yourself or should I start thinking of someone else? I need a quick answer because the Ministry seems to be taking some… liberties with filling positions in my staff. I think I'd better take care of this one before they take care of it themselves."

Sirius took a few moments to consider things. He'd chosen to become a curse-breaker because he'd thought it would be fun. And, he had to admit, sometimes it was: just remembering some cases he'd gotten to solve made him want to start a fit of laughter. But the hours were terrible – he recalled spending days in a row barely seeing Mia back when he was working. If he wanted interesting cases, he'd need to go overseas, make twenty-hour days of work and sometimes leave for more than a day and leave his family behind. That was, if he didn't have to be located in another country permanently like Bill Weasley had been. If he wanted normal hours, he'd probably only find positions in Gringotts and that just sounded damn boring to him.

On the other hand, being the Quidditch coach at Hogwarts didn't promise a single boring day. It was Quidditch and he loved it. His job, or at least what he recalled Hooch doing, was teaching first years how to fly, watching the house team's training sessions when they requested it and refereeing the games. No biggie. It would be the perfect fit if… "Will I be able to go back home every day like Mia does?" he asked.

"Of course. Family is an important thing, Sirius. Though Hogwarts doesn't often have teachers with spouses and children – and that is not by choice, I assure you – the school rules are ready to deal with those situations."

He looked at Mia, who gave him a radiant smile. She was as happy about it as he was. So, he turned to the headmaster. "Well, you've got yourself a new Quidditch coach. But I'm bringing my own broomstick – if school brooms were any slower, they would be flying backwards."

"I'll confess I wouldn't know because I've never flied one of them," Dumbledore said. Suddenly, he looked over Sirius's should at someone who'd just walked in. "I'm afraid I'll need to leave you two. Severus had just arrived and I needed a word with him."

Just as soon as the headmaster was gone, Sirius turned around to see his very hated former classmate and now, he realized, fellow member of the Hogwarts staff. A job that good had to have something rotten in it. "Snivellus? In the order? Has Dumbledore gone insane? He was a _Death Eater_. Maybe still is."

"Dumbledore must have his reasons," Mia said quietly.

"They'd better be good reasons," Sirius hissed. "Doesn't the greasy have something else to do? Like terrifying children or hiding from shampoo?"

His wife had to bit her lip not to laugh. "Don't be mean." She pulled him by the arm near the table so they could sit down on the chairs that surrounded it. "Forget about Snape. We have more important stuff to think about. Now both of us have jobs."

That brought a grin to his face. "At the same place. Don't get busy in your breaks, honey, 'cause I may drop by your office to… amuse you, if you know what I mean."

She looked away, playing hard to get. "I'm afraid I don't agree with that sort of relationships between co-workers, Sirius. We'll just have to keep our hands away from each other from now on."

"I'd quit sooner than I'd let that happen, Mia," he replied, holding her face by the chin and pulling her closer so their faces were dangerously close. "My hands belong all over you. How else would I get babies in you?"

"Not anytime soon, Mr. Black," she said, kissing his cheek and pulling away to a more comfortable distance for everyone else in the room. "Speaking of baby. Now that both of us have gotten jobs, we need to get Alex a babysitter…"

"If there's anyone who'll be watching your son while you're working, that person is me," Lulu told her as she came by them, having arrived to the meeting moments earlier. "Just imagine if he ended up with one of those nannies who spend the whole time reading magazines and kept him all day long in his playpen when he's bigger. Forget it, I'll watch him."

"Lulu, but you have your job," Mia replied.

"Yeah, I do," Lulu told her. "And I'll still have it – I'll just do it part-time in the afternoons and weekends from time to time while you're back home. The kid needs someone to make his life a more amusing place and you can only handle so much of dim-witted clients who can't tell the difference between a real book and a magazine. At some point you just feel like cursing them."

Sirius looked up at her thoughtfully. "You could just say you're a big softie who loves babies and can't wait to get your hands on your very handsome grandson."

"If I'm a softie, then so are you," she replied.

"Sure I am. And I'm proud of it," Sirius declared.

He watched by the corner of his eye as Moody approached Dumbledore with a sober look on his face and holding his wand as if they were under attack. He said something to the headmaster that made him look confused and then worried and seconds later he followed the retired auror out of the room.

"Something's happening," Sirius said, getting up. "I'm going to check what it is."

"Wait," his wife, said, getting up too. "I'm going too."

They walked out of the room, silently followed by Lulu, and then heard the loud voices coming from the Shack's entrance hall. Then, they clearly heard Moody yelling '_Stupefy_' and the sound of someone falling on the floor.

At first, when they reached the hall none of them could see who'd been stunned as Kingsley Shacklebolt and pink-haired woman who seemed to be an auror as well were leaning over the unconscious body of a man, trying to lift the person to a position that would allow him to be dragged.

And when Mia finally saw the man's face, she thought she was imagining things. She'd be damned if the bloke didn't look just like her late birth-father. It was Gabriel McKinnon.

**A/N: Cheers for those who guessed it was Gabriel! His survival will be explained next chapter, don't worry. Anyway, I really hope you liked it - this one was a hard one to come: I wrote and removed two or three more scenes and practically rewrote half the chapter twice. Send some feedback! Review!**


	38. Interrogatory

Even though Gabriel – or the guy who looked just like him – had already been dragged to the shack's basement, followed by Moody and Dumbledore, Mia couldn't help staring at spot where she'd seen him just seconds before. Was she going mad and seeing dead people all of a sudden or had that really happened?

Sirius cleared his throat by her side. "Was that…"

"I think it was," she said, before he could finish. At that point, the questions had gotten quite predictable.

"How did he…"

"No idea," she told her husband. Then, she remembered that Lulu was standing right behind them and had probably seen that too. One single look at her mother confirmed her suspicions. She didn't look horrified or utterly shocked but she didn't look normal either. In fact, a few seconds after Mia had looked at her, Lulu turned on her heel, reached for the coat-hanger and dressed her coat.

"Lulu. What are you doing?" Mia asked.

"I am going to down to Hogsmeade and getting myself into a pub because I really, _really_, need a drink right now," she said, opening the shack's door. "Then, I'll figure out what to do next. You're welcome to join me there if you want." And she left, banging the door behind her and leaving a dumbstruck daughter behind.

Sirius sighed. "Well, I think I'd need a drink too in her situation." He turned to his wife and saw she was now staring at the basement's door. "Mia?"

"I'm going down there," Mia said, walking to the stairwell that lead to the entrance of the basement, ignoring the other members of the Order that were arriving to the Hall. "I need to see it's really him." Then, she stopped walking, midway through the stairs. "He's… this is insane, bloody insane."

Sirius, who'd been following her, caught her in his arms and held her for a moment. She'd been the one telling him a week earlier that everything felt easier when he held her. He hoped it still made her feel the same way.

Her arms came around him and she relaxed slightly. "We saw the McKinnon house burned to ashes," she whispered against his chest as her eyes burned. "We saw what was left of the… bodies being carried outside. He was _there_. How can he possibly be _here_? It can't be him…"

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't," he told her, pulling away slightly and lifting up her face to look right into her eyes. "Either way, we'll know soon enough, Mia. And no matter what, we'll make it alright. Okay?"

She sighed and nodded. "Okay." She took his hand and they made the rest of the way down. At the bottom of the stairs, in the little hallway in front of the door that lead to the basement's main area, Dumbledore was talking to Moody, who looked up and gave them a nod before going back in, closing the door behind him.

Dumbledore looked at them as soon was Moody was gone. "Sirius, Amelia…"

"Is it him?" Mia interrupted him. "Is it Gabriel McKinnon?"

The old man sighed. "We don't know yet. Maybe you should go home for now – I'll have the meeting delayed for a day or two, considering this… occurrence."

Mia shook her head. "No. We'll stay. This is personal." She wasn't aware if Dumbledore knew her blood relation to Gabriel but the confused look that covered his face for a single second made her believe he didn't. "We have to stay. I… I'll explain it later."

The old Headmaster sighed. "Alright, Amelia. But for your own safety, refrain yourself from going into the room.."

"Do _you_ think it's him?" Sirius asked him.

"It's hard to say. Alastor refuses to believe it is him, which is not surprising because of what has happened to him barely over a week ago. But he has aged – the man who may or may not be Gabriel, I mean. If someone were using Polyjuice potion that wouldn't be possible. Now or in a hundred years the transformation would look exactly the same as the source had been."

Mia nodded. "Yes, that makes sense… but how could he be alive. You had the body…"

"We removed seven unrecognizable skeletons from rumble," Dumbledore corrected him. "They were the exact same number as the McKinnons that were supposed to be in the house at that time but they were burned nearly to ashes. The ministry based itself in the remains of the wands they were carrying to identify the bodies… Nobody had doubts it was them at the time but we could have been wrong."

"So it could really be him," Sirius concluded.

Mia sighed. _Yeah,_ it could, she thought. The world was definitely going upside down. Dead people coming back to life, school kids like Cedric being killed… "I… hum… I need to go to the Three Broomsticks and talk to Lulu," she said.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Sirius asked.

She shook her head. "No. I think I'll use the walk there to figure out what to think. I won't take long."

He nodded. Sirius had guessed she'd need a bit of space to think by herself and he was willing to give it to her now. He reached for her hand and held it for a moment before giving her a smile as if assuring her things would be alright and letting her go. Just as she'd disappeared up the stairs, the door of the basement's main area opened and the pink-haired Auror came out.

"Dumbledore, Moody is asking for Veritaserum for the interrogatory," she informed the headmaster. "Do you think I could go ask Snape if he has some?"

"Oh, I'll do it myself, thank you, Nymphadora," he said, causing her to shiver at the sound of the name.

"Please don't call me…"

"Oh, of course. Tonks. It's always slipping my mind. You'll have to forgive me – it's the old age." He turned to Sirius then. "This is Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be called just Tonks."

"For obvious reasons," Tonks said under her breath.

Dumbledore either didn't hear or ignored her comment. "Tonks is an Auror and, well, your cousin, Sirius."

"My cousin?" he asked in surprise. That couldn't be good, could it? He hated most of his cousins or his family for that matter. But, at the same time, that girl didn't look like some pureblood snob at first glance. Or at the following ones.

"I'll leave it for Tonks to explain," Dumbledore said. "I need to have a word with Severus now. If you excuse me…" And he made his way up the stairs to the ground floor.

Sirius coughed. "So, exactly how are you my cousin?"

"Actually, it's 'first cousin once removed'," Tonks specified. "My mother is your first cousin. Andromeda."

He grinned – all was explained, then. It was safe to say that Andromeda was the only one of his cousins that he even cared about. "Of course," he said. "Stupid of me. She'd gotten married to Ted Tonks – my dear old mother wouldn't shut up about it for months… and not in a good way, I'll admit, because he's a muggle-born. How is she doing?"

"Very well," she said. "Mum says the best thing she's ever done was eloping with Dad and leaving the family behind."

"I couldn't agree more," Sirius said with a chuckle. "Bunch of old bats. Okay, no offense, but what's with the pink hair?"

"Oh," she said and, seconds later, what had been pink hair had become purple. "I'm a metamorphagus. I can change my appearance at will."

"Wow," he mumbled. "That would have come handy when I was on the run."

"Yeah. It works great in undercover missions," she pointed out. "Well, I should go inside or Moody will start howling. It was nice to meet you. "

"Yeah, nice to meet you too," he replied. "Say 'hi' to your Mom for me, will you?"

And all of a sudden, he couldn't help wondering how these days family was getting better and better for him. If he excluded a few branches, that was.

---

"How many of those have you had already?" Mia asked her mother as she sat by her side at one of the nearly empty pub's table, nodding at the full glass of firewhiskey that Lulu was staring at.

She sighed. "Only one yet. You can't pour that much firewhiskey down your throat at once or it will feel like you've just swallowed something on fire. Did you come here to have some too?"

"Nope," Mia told her, leaning against the back of her chair. "I just came here to talk. Dumbledore reckons it may be really him."

"If it's not, that was a damn good copy," Lulu said with a sigh. "It's Gabe. I know it is. Bloody bastard. Alive all this time and doesn't say a thing. We weren't together when he died but things were walking there, you know? That should mean something."

Mia nodded. "You haven't gotten over him," she stated, speaking of it for the first time since… ever.

"Might as well have," she mumbled. "That way, maybe I wouldn't feel like hexing him and banging his head against a wall repeatedly right now." Lulu sighed once more and turned to Mia. "That guy was always just way to handsome for his own good. Blonde hair, deep brown eyes one hell of a…"

"Are you sure you've only had one drink?" Mia asked her before she went any further.

Lulu rolled her eyes. "I'm not in drunk ramble, Mia. I was just getting to the point that it's hard to forget a guy like that. Especially when you had a kid with him. Which only makes me even more angry at him."

"Was it me?" Mia asked her. "Was it me that made you break up when you were young?"

Her mother looked her in the eyes and shook her head. "No. It was giving you up that made us pull away from each other. We somehow knew we should have kept you – you were so… loveable. So small. And we wanted to give you everything. But we were kids and we thought we'd never make you happy. You were ours just for a night. We even gave you a name so we could remember you by it. Kathleen Maeve McKinnon, after my middle name and his mother."

"Kathleen is my middle name too," Mia told her.

"Your grandmother turned it into your middle name too as a little homage to us, for giving her a granddaughter to love. Anyway, it wasn't you who broke us up. We just couldn't face each other knowing we'd given up the thing we'd loved most. So, I left and went looking for you without telling him and he went on with his life alone. Curiously, we had you back in a way when we nearly got back together again. I guess we needed you to be together. Not that it matters matter much right now because what I really want to do to Gabe is beating him up and dump him in an alley."

"You are really angry at him, aren't you?"

"I've been pinning over his dead self for more than a decade. I'm entitled to be angry when I find out he's been _pretending_."

"We don't know his story yet," Mia pointed out.

"Then you go hear it and then tell me about it." She took a sip of her glass. "I need to be a little more light-headed when _I_ deal him again."

---

Mia and Sirius stood outside the basement's door half-open door as Moody interrogated Gabriel. Over two hours had passed since he'd arrived to the Shrieking Shack and still there was no sign of him being an impostor under Polyjuice.

"_I said I'm Gabriel McKinnon!"_ he repeated in fury. It was about the third time Moody asked him that question.

"_Alastor, he's under veritaserum, for Merlin's sake,"_ Kingsley Shacklebolt's deep voice said.

"_He could be using the antidote. Or Occlumency,"_ Moody replied.

"_He's not using __Occlumency,"_ Snape declared calmly. "_I've checked_."

"_Sure, and we'll take _your_ word for it, Snape,"_ the retired Auror spat back in an angry tone. As if he'd ever take the word of a Death Eater…

Dumbledore cleared his throat. _"I have checked too, Alastor. And if you keep asking him the same question over and over again, the Veritaserum will wear off before you're finished."_

Both Sirius and Mia clearly heard Moody's loud groaned before he went on with the interrogatory. _"Fine. Then if you're McKinnon, how are you alive?"_

"_Marlene_," he replied, his voice a little strained. "_She got us two out of there_."

"Marlene?" Mia whispered at Sirius. She was supposed to be dead too.

He shook his head, meaning he was as confused as she was.

"_Marlene McKinnon, your niece, you mean_?" Moody inquired. "_So you're saying that not only you but Marlene survived that night. Then where is she? And how do you explain the two bodies carrying Gabriel's, I mean, _your_ wand and Marlene's that we found?_"

"_Marlene is dead__ too. She didn't die in the house but she didn't live much further either. We were disarmed, that's how we lost our wands," _he said. _"The bodies were probably the Death Eaters who took our wands. I can't say for sure. I was knocked out right away."_

"_Then, how did you __two escape?" _the former auror asked him skeptical tone.

"_I only know what the healers told me she had said. Apparently, Marlene was knocked out for a few minutes and the Death Eaters thought she was dead. She woke up and managed to check if anyone was still alive and, apparently, she found me," _he narrated_. "We had a hidden Portkey to a safe house in South Africa and she used it to take the two of us out of there before they burned the house. Then, she flooed to a magical hospital and didn't last longer than a couple of hours. She's buried in a cemetery near Emalahleni, you can check. The healers told me I was in a coma for months – I was hit by Merlin knows how many spells at the same time."_

Sirius noticed Mia's eyes widening when he said that. She knew Gabriel had been lucky to have ended up in a coma and come back from it instead of ending up dead or a vegetable.

"_When I woke up, I didn't remember a thing," _Gabriel continued._ "The healers didn't know my name or Marlene's – she had never told them, probably trying to protect us. It took me another year to start getting my memories back and, by the time I had gotten myself together, that kid, Harry Potter, had already beaten You-Know-Who. I escaped from the hospital without telling them I had the memories back. I eventually found out that my whole family was dead and that I was thought to have been killed too. There was nothing for me to come back to. So, I made up a new identity as a muggle and lived pretty much isolated until I got the silent calling from the Order a week ago. Of course if I'd know I'd have such a cold welcoming, I'd have just stayed where I was. For Merlin's sake, we've known each other for years. I was there when you lost your leg."_

"_Any Death Eater could know that…"_

He was right in that one, Mia had to admit. With the right sort of torture, any Death Eater could know anything he or she wanted to know. But if they didn't know what to look for… Suddenly, Mia had an idea. She didn't want Gabriel to just rot in there, as confused as she might be. She owed him her life in more ways than anyone could tell. "I'm going in," she told Sirius and, before he could protest, she shoved the door open and bursting into the room. Gabriel's back was turned to the door and he tried unsuccessfully to move and see who it was.

"Hey, what are you doing here? You stay outside while we do this," Moody demanded.

"Amelia, please," Dumbledore said.

"I can help proving if it's him," Mia stated. "If you doubt him despite the veritaserum, let me do this."

"How can you do that? A little code between the two of you? A private joke? Anyone could have heard it!" Mad-Eye countered.

Mia shook her head. "It's nothing of it," she said. "Give me a shot, Moody. I know you feel you need to doubt him bit let me just give this a try."

The man hesitated for a while but, with a huff, he nodded at the tied man, signalling her to go ahead.

Gabriel's eyes opened wide when he finally managed to see her. There was disbelief all over them. "Mia…" he whispered reverently. He was looking at her as if he was seeing a ghost and, in that moment, just by looking in his eyes she was sure that was Gabriel McKinnon. Merlin helped her if anyone could fake such a look. She was sure it was the look she'd give to any of her children in a situation like that. "You… I thought you'd been killed. I was told you'd been…"

"Yeah, that… that makes two of us," she replied. Her throat was pounds heavier than usual. Looking into his eyes was as if she was looking into her own, which only made her more nervous. That was really her allegedly dead birth father. "What…" She hesitated for a moment before finishing the question. "What is my name?"

"_Oh, come on,"_ she heard Snape grumbling behind her in a mocking tone.

Gabriel looked at her confused. "Your name is Amelia Davis. But anyone could know that. That's not really a good way to prove it's really me."

She shook her head. "No, not that name. The name I was given in the night I was born."

Moody looked at her with an eyebrow rose. "What are you trying to do? He didn't know you until he came to the order – he was a kid when you were born."

Mia looked at him with a stern expression on her face. "If he is Gabriel, he knows the answer to this question," she told him before turning to Gabriel again. She took a deep breath and tried to ignore the nerves. "Tell me the name _you_ gave me."

His eyes widened even more in recognition. "You know," Gabriel murmured in amazement. "Lucy told you. Is she alive too?"

She nodded silently. "Tell me."

"Kathleen. Kathleen Maeve McKinnon."

Mia smiled softly and turned to Moody. "It's him."

"What the hell was that?" he asked, angry he hadn't understood a thing from their conversation.

"That was the name my birth parents gave me before they gave me up to adoption. Nobody but them knows it," Mia told him.

"And how does he know that?!" Moody inquired.

"Because I'm her birth father!" Gabriel yelled at him, out of patience. "Merlin, Moody you're smarter than that. There are things you don't know about me."

The room became deadly silent all of a sudden. And the uncomfortable lack of sound lasted longer than anyone would have wished.

Dumbledore was the one to break it."So that is why you said it was personal," he concluded, receiving a nod from Mia before he turned to Mad-Eye. "Alastor, I believe this is enough proof. Gabriel has been tied for over two hours – no Polyjuice would last this long. He's taken veritaserum and explained everything with no hesitation. You can release him."

The former auror didn't look happy but he obeyed. He grabbed his wand, waving it to Gabriel and releasing the ropes that tied him to the chair.

Dumbledore was the first to approach Gabriel, giving him his hand to shake. "Welcome back, Gabriel."

He sighed before shaking the headmaster's hand. Surprisingly, now that he knew that he hadn't lost everything, it was good to be back.

In the meanwhile, Mia slipped out of the room, into Sirius's waiting arms. "That was very brave of you to do," he told her.

"And very stupid. I thought I might faint before doing anything useful." She took a deep breath before taking a step back and looking up at his grey eyes. "Those vacations you were talking about… how fast can you get us out of the country? Because I need a break. I need a week of rest away from this madness."

He smiled and kissed her brow, wrapping one arm around her back as he walked her up to the shack's ground floor. "Give me a few hours and maybe I'll manage to get us out today."

She sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Thank you. I love you. I love you so much for being here for me."

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

**A/N: Alright, I've cut a scene from the end of the chapter that I'll include in next one because it made the chapter ridiculously long... I hope you liked the explanation. That part was written for months (yes, I had this plotted for a looong time), just had to brush it up a little. I seriously hope you liked it. Lulu/Gabe confrontation will be next chapter. Send some feedback, it's always welcome. Review!**


	39. Leaving

Lulu ended up not drinking that much, as she eventually remembered how much she hated firewhiskey or any other magical alcoholic drinks. And, consequently, she didn't get as lightheaded as she'd wished when it was time to face Gabriel. Especially after Mia had come to tell her what he had said about his year-long absence.

She was still pissed off at him but she knew she shouldn't – it wasn't rational but, at the moment, the last thing she cared about was bloody rationality.

Part of her knew that it hadn't been his fault, or at least not his intention, to have her thinking he was dead – because _he_ stupidly thought she was dead too. But another part, the one that was winning right now, hated him for pretending at all, didn't want to admit that it hadn't been anyone's fault and the whole situation had just been a huge misunderstanding. That part wanted – really wanted – to yell.

And when she entered the Shrieking Shack again, she saw him right away, standing with Dumbledore in the hall, talking with a sober look in his face. He looked different. Not so much physically but his eyes seemed heavier. Like someone who'd been in pain for a long time. But when he saw her, onlyt for a moment, his eyes became the same she'd known for so long. And it wiped just a little of her anger towards him. But not all of it. Not nearly.

She waited for Dumbledore to finish whatever he was saying and only approached Gabriel when the headmaster moved to talk to Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye. The first words that came out of her mouth weren't as meaningful as she would have expected. "What the hell, Gabe?" she asked. "What the hell?!"

"It's great to see you again too, Luce," he replied sarcastically. The slightly sentimental look that had covered his face before had shifted into an annoyed one that she could recognize from the past.

"What on Earth made you think that we were _dead_, you stupid, _idiot_ of man?!" Lulu inquired, anger boiling now. She knew she should get it out of her chest right away before it got even worse. "Did you just _assume_? Because as far as the world was concerned, _you_ were dead, so how could you have possibly been told that Mia and I were killed?"

"Of course, I didn't _assume_!" he replied, matching her tone. He sighed to calm himself down. "Look, if you pay enough money, some people will tell you about anything without even caring who you are or what you want to know that for," Gabriel told her. "I had some contacts in the underworld from my Auror days and I used them. They told me nobody survived that night in my house, that Amelia Davis and her old nanny were killed too. What was I supposed to think?"

"Great. So you just went on with your life, Gabe?" she accused. "Stopped looking."

"No, I… I stopped living it," he told her. "Merlin, as far as I was concerned, until a few hours ago I only bothered to keep myself alive out of respect for Marlene. She took me out of the house, saved my life but didn't make it herself. I owed her."

She didn't reply. Now, asking if he'd gone on with his life that felt like a stupid and cruel thing to ask. _She_ had gone on with her life – she'd never forgotten him but had kept living and hadn't been miserable thanks to having her daughter with her. Gabe couldn't say the same. No, she hadn't thought of that before, only that she was damn angry at him.

"Well, then you wasted your money because your snitch informed you wrong," she told him, now irritated at herself. He deserved more – the whole story. "Mia and I just went into hiding – the Davises were marked, we weren't sure of they just wanted her parents or Mia too, so Dumbledore sent her away anyway. I joined her a few months later when You-Know-Who vanished. There was no fake death involved, people just started guessing around because there was no sign of us anywhere and we'd left nearly everything we owned behind."

"Damn it, Luce, then how should I know? Usually when people vanished back then they were as good as dead," he said, in an almost painful tone. "Maybe I should have kept looking and dug deeper but I was all messed up."

"No, forget it," she said with a sigh. "I shouldn't have said that. You did what you could. I'm just… angry. It's like none of us was meant to realize the other was alive. Bloody stupid world," she grumbled.

And several seconds of uncomfortable silence followed. Neither of them really knew what to say after so long thinking the other was dead. Anything they might have imagined whenever they dreamed it might not be real, didn't apply now. No, reality was a really crappy thing.

"So, where's Mia?" Gabriel asked casually, looking away from her. "She vanished all of a sudden. I couldn't even thank her."

"She left," Lulu informed him. "She needed a little time out. The world has been a mess lately and she's right in the middle of it."

"And me showing up didn't help, did it?"

Lulu shook her head. "It didn't. But Mia's not angry, she just needs time. Sirius will take her away in a little vacation and they'll be back in a week or so, hopefully all bright, shinny and noisiatingly in love."

"Sirius Black," Gabriel mumbled. "I remember him. He was her boyfriend – nice kid. Anyone could see he had it bad for her. And she had it bad for him too."

"So it won't surprise you to know that they're married and have a bunch of kids now."

"Kids…" he said, thoughtful. That was to be expected but it was hard thinking of Mia married and with children. Especially after he thought she was gone for so long. "How many of them?"

Lulu chuckled. "Three. Two boys and a girl. And I'd bet they aren't quite done yet – the youngest is only four-months old. Sirius and Mia… they're a long story. It wasn't exactly easy for them to get where they are." As it wouldn't be easy for them to get where they had been before...

"I'd have gone to you if I knew you two were alive too," Gabriel finally said.

"I believe you," she replied quickly. And that admission made the air clear from then on, not completely but enough for them not to be in a complete fog when dealing with each other. "You know, Gabe, this awkwardness is stupid. I'm alive, you're alive, let's just deal with it."

Gabriel gave her the closest thing to a smile that he could manage at the moment. "Always practical, Luce," he said. "But right, anyway."

"Aren't I always?" Lulu replied, crossing her arms. "So, what are you doing now?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea. I have orders to stay away from public because everyone thinks I'm dead, so… I really have no idea at all. I don't even know where they're gonna put me in the meanwhile."

Lulu sighed. "Well, I have a couch," she said, shifting uncomfortably. "It's not the most comfy thing in the world but it wouldn't kill you to sleep on it."

"Are you asking me if I want to stay with you?" His tone was so surprised i almost sounded mocking.

She gave him a warning glare. "Just as a flatmate, Gabe. No funny business. And I hate cooking, so I could use someone to do it for me – you were decent a decent cook, if I remember, so it has perks both ways."

"Won't Mia mind me living with you?" he asked. "Or… someone else."

Lulu raised an eyebrow. "Mia is my daughter, not my keeper, Gabe. I love and care for her but she really doesn't have a say in what I do or who I share my place with. And if you want to know if I'm dating someone, just ask it. For the record, I'm not. So, do you want to crash with me or not?"

He shrugged. "Alright then. Sounds fair to me."

---

"So, how was it like? Finding out your dad is alive after all this time, I mean," Izzy asked her mother.

While her mother used her wand to send several pieces of clothing into a large trunk, Izzy sat on the edge of her parent's bed, where her baby brother lied on his back, apparently trying to chew his closed little fist. She grinned down at Alex and tickled him, making him squeal in a way that made it impossible for her to resist picking him up and bringing him to her lap.

"It's complicated, Izzy," Mia replied with a sigh. She and Sirius had gone to get the kids little over two hours before and given then a small briefing on the order and that afternoon's events. While Sirius had left to go take care of the arrangements for their vacations, taking Harry with him so they'd have a little guy talk about what had been going on and further approach the order matter, she'd stayed home with Izzy and the baby, packing and answering the million questions that came from her daughter's curiosity.

"What do you mean 'complicated'?" she asked as her brother tried to reach up for her face and protested for attention when he realized it was too high for him. Izzy absently gave him her finger to grasp and he was satisfied enough.

"He was never my 'dad', Izzy. I didn't even knew he existed, much less that he was my father, when I was your age."

"You didn't know Lulu was your mother either and you're great with each other," Izzy pointed out.

Mia shook her head. "It wasn't so great in the beginning, Izzy. I was really angry at her, even tried to send her away. But eventually I realized she'd been my mother all my life – she'd always been there. Gabriel wasn't. And it wasn't like it was with your dad, Izzy."

"You named Alex after him," Izzy reminded her mother, nodding down at the baby. "Alex _Gabriel_ Black. That must mean something."

Mia nodded. "Like I said, it's complicated, honey. It's easier to deal with a dead man, or to forgive one. You don't have to face him. And the worst part, or maybe the best part, is that even though I'd never known he was my father, in that time we were in the first order he did a better job protecting me than Phillip Davis did his whole life."

"That's a start," Izzy pointed out. But, even if you don't… fix things with him, do you think I could hang out with him sometimes? I… I'd like to know how it is like to have a grandfather."

Her mother sighed. "Honey, Gabriel is a good person deep down. Just because I find it complicated to face him, it doesn't mean you have to stay away too."

Izzy smiled. "Thanks, Mom," she said just as her father walked into the room, followed by Harry.

Mia looked up and turned to him. "Hey, did you find anything for today?"

"Yes, indeed," he replied, grinning widely. "We have a four-bedroom villa waiting for us in a beautiful and, according to the lady in the travel agency, very baby-friendly muggle resort in the lovely island of Saint Lucia."

"Saint Lucia? Isn't that in the Caribbean?" Izzy inquired in excitement.

"Well, I tried to get us a cold little shack in Siberia but there wasn't much to pick," Sirius said, faking disappointment. "I guess we'll have to deal with the shinning sun and warm water of the Caribbean sea."

"Oh, cut it out, Daddy," she said with a laugh. "When are we leaving?"

"Tonight at eleven – I went to the ministry and got us an international portkey – the blokes at the agency wanted to put us inside an airplane for over eight hours. How mental are they? I managed to convince the blokes at the agency that we didn't need transport and would be there even today. They were a little sceptical but went along with it."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Sceptical?" he asked Sirius. "Try terrified. Everyone who heard you telling them you'd be in Saint Lucia even today was whispering you were either mental or some criminal with access to super-fast airplanes. The travel agent nearly trembled when you said you 'had your ways to get there'. It sounded awfully shady."

"Well, aren't I a suspicious character?" Sirius asked in amusement.

"Very," Mia agreed in a short moment of amusement. "The former fugitive thing just adds charm to it."

"Thank you, sweetheart. The point is that I go us the trip," Sirius said before turning back to his godson. "Anyway, didn't you want to go back to the Burrow for a while before we leave, kid? Something about spending a few hours with and having an emotional farewell with a certain redheaded girl who you've recently gotten rather close to…"

"I've _never_ said that," Harry replied, blushing deeply and looking away. Thinking not so long before Ginny had been the one to be teased about him… He gulped before looking at his godsister, who sat snickering as she held their brother. "Er… Izzy do you want to go too?"

"Won't I be on the way for your 'emotional farewell'?" she asked in an innocent tone.

He glared her. "It's _not_ funny."

Izzy chuckled before she got up and passed Alex, who'd taken to napping at some point, to her father, following Harry out of the room.

Sirius grinned after them before turning to his wife.

"Harry sounded alright," Mia said in a low tone as she finished sending the last items of clothing left to pack into the trunk.

Sirius nodded, rocking the sleeping baby. "Yeah. I think he's relieved to know what we're doing to fight that snake-faced bastard. The kid is stronger than many people way older than him – even way older than us – are. He asked to join the order too, which was expected, but we've reached an understanding and he'll let us worry about the order at least until he's off age."

"Thank Merlin," Mia said as she sat down on the bed.

He leaned down to kiss her forehead, careful not to move too quickly and wake the baby. "That's one less thing for you to worry about. Now, I'll put this little one to bed and when I come back I'll take care of my beautiful wife. Behave while I'm gone."

Then, Sirius turned around, carrying his son to the nursery right next to their room. The baby moved a pudgy little arm as he placed him down in his cot but didn't wake up and Sirius grinned down at him. While Mia insisted Alex was his carbon copy, Sirius didn't completely agree. There was softness in his son that reminded him so much of Mia. "Now, Daddy's off to take care of your Mummy," he whispered to the sleeping little boy. "And later you'll help me – she just can't resist smiling at you. You know, maybe one day you'll find a girl as pretty and as great as your Mummy and you'll want to make her smile all the time like Daddy does." He then caressed the top of the baby's head and left the room silently.

Back in their room, he found Mia levitating the trunk that had been on top of their bed onto the floor. She then sighed and placed her wand on the dresser.

He took several steps towards her and cupped her cheek, making her look up at his eyes. "You know what you need, right now? You need to relax, Mia. Just forget all the crap in the world for a while and let yourself go."

She sighed. "Thankfully, I have a whole week to work on that, she thought. And then, she looked him in the eyes. Yeah, she had him to thank for still being in one piece… If it wasn't for him, she'd probably have crumbled already. So, she took one step closer to him. And she brushed her lips against his and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Sirius didn't hesitate before letting one of his hands descend to her waist while the other still touched her cheek. Their lips moved against each other's as if they'd never, ever been apart. And the sigh she gave when they broke apart and rested their foreheads together sounded like music to his ears.

"I need you now," she whispered. "Everything around us is moving so damn fast that I just want to yell and ask for it to stop. I feel like I can't get a grip, so help me. Help me forget all this for just a moment."

He smiled at her and ran his hand though the long strands of her hair. "I'll help you forget it for more than a moment, love."

And then Sirius kissed her softly, incredibly softly, but so passionately at the same time it nearly seemed impossible. Slowly, his lips left hers and started tracing a path of kisses down to her neck, making her moan.

She couldn't think of anything else but that – being loved, cherished, that way. Her world right now was nothing more than that room, no war, no confusion, just them. He was all she needed to forget, to make her whole.

---

Later, Sirius watched her rest awake but with her eyes closed on her stomach by his side. She looked so peaceful, so relaxed, unlike she'd been before. He knew she was in her happy place at that moment, whatever it was inside her mind.

He ran his fingertips down her spine and she stiffened, turning to her side to look at him and smile, actually smile.

"Relaxed?" Sirius asked her.

"Very," she replied. Last thing on her mind at that moment was the mess the world was in, Gabriel or any sort of worry. "Thank you. You always make me feel better. You're probably the best husband in the world."

He grinned at her before kissing her lips. "I am, aren't I? That should make you a lucky woman, shouldn't it? Then why is it that I feel like I'm the lucky one?"

"Because we're awfully sappy?" Mia suggested with a chuckle.

"Honey, it's us. Rules are different in our world – there's no notion of 'sappy' in it," he joked. "And if there is, we'll keep it our own secret. Tonight I'm taking you away to a really great vacation in a resort with a pool and plenty of stuff to keep the kids occupied all day long. Enough to let us have our very late honeymoon."

"Hum, honeymoon, really?" she asked. "But I think you're forgetting Alex. He's way too small to entertain himself on the pool or to stay a whole day without us watching."

"Oh, no, I'm not forgetting him. But he has his own room and a great ability to nap," Sirius said. "I'd say we have no danger of him walking up on us anytime soon. So, like I said, it's a honeymoon… kind of."

"Honeymoon with kids there. You're insane," she said with a laugh.

"And you've just realized it now?"

**A/N: Sorry for the late update - I had a very important field trip (three-day long) and only returned yesterday night. This is not as big as the others but I barely had time to write at all. Hopefully, next one will be bigger. ****And now I'm off to bed because I'm sleeping on my feet. ****Well, hope you liked it despite the slightly smaller size. Send some feedback. Review!**


	40. Dirty Game

******A/N: It's taken me forever, I know. But I have loads of assignments pilled up. And, in my defense ths chapter was first posted at Sunday afternoon but, due to a site glitch, no allerts were sent (moody site, isn't it?). So... enjoy the 4000 word long chapter.**

**One week later**

"Izzy, be careful with him," Mia shouted from the lounger where she was lying as she saw her daughter sitting inside the baby pool, playing with her little brother.

"Mom, this is little over a foot deep," Izzy said, laughing when Alex splashed a bit of water on her with his little feet as she held him over the water level. "You like the water, don't you, Alex?"

The baby squealed in response and tried to reach for her face – he seemed to have some sort of obsession with reaching for faces, long hair and Harry's glasses.

"Don't leave him out of the water like that. He'll get cold," Harry warned her as he sat inside the pool too.

"Cold?" Izzy said, raising an eyebrow. "It's nearly 30 degrees outside and it's only morning. If anything, he might be roasting." She sat the baby on her lap so he could play with the water. The little boy, satisfied, splashed water all over Harry.

"Hey," Harry protested, splashing a little bit of water over the amused baby in return. "Expect being gotten back at when you splash me, mate."

But Alex giggled in return and smacked his little arms on the water again, splashing water over Harry again and making him narrow his eyes.

Sirius chuckled as he lied on his lounger, by Mia's side. "That one had just started a war," he declared. "Why do I feel like we have a daring teenager on the making?"

"Because you're his father and it's probable he'll take after you in that matter. Merlin, help us," Mia told him with a laugh.

"_My_ part of the genes? I wasn't _that_ bad," he protested.

"You say that because you didn't have to deal with yourself – you should hear McGonagall or Flitwick speaking of you and James. They usually describe you as 'brilliant but disciplinary nightmares'. I think your detention record speaks for itself," she informed him.

"McGonagall secretly loved us or else she wouldn't have suggested I became the Quidditch coach in the school. And do not judge me by my detention record – I feel objectified," he told her, in a mock-hut tone. "A bloke needs to have his fun. You know, be young while you can."

"Hum, hum. Boys will be boys," she said, looking away so he couldn't see the smile on her face. In her book, it wasn't exactly a bad thing if Alex turned out to be like Sirius – her husband might have been rather difficult for adults to deal with in his teenage years – which, she had to admit, was one of the reasons she had fallen for him in the first place – but he'd been, and still was, one of the most loyal and brave people she'd ever met. That was something she wished for any of her kids to be too. "You know, troublemaker or not, I still love you."

"Well, don't I feel honoured?" he joked before glancing back at the kids in the pool. "So, how long do you reckon it will take them to exhaust Alex so we can get him napping and…" he grinned, "you know."

Mia snorted. "Hopefully not long."

Sirius sighed. Between Alex's teething that kept him crying for hours sometimes, spending time with the kids and roasting a bit at the beach, their honeymoon, or what he'd insisted on calling 'honeymoon', hadn't been as… honeymoon-ish as they would have wished. So, Alex's naps were time as valuable as gold for them to spend at the villa alone. "You were right. Honeymoon with kids is madness. I love them a lot, I really do, even want three or four more but…"

"You mean_ one or two_ more," she corrected him. "If you want three or four more kids, you'd better start looking for an extra woman to have half of those because there is just no way I'm carrying them all."

He gave her a look that seemed like the one of a little boy who'd just had his favourite candy taken away from him. "Why not?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Remember that fat, insane hormone bomb that walked around our house with swollen ankles and a sore back little over four months ago? The one who kicked you out in Christmas Eve and made you tremble whenever she glared? That was me… pregnant."

He gulped. "I am trying to forget that part of the process…"

"…which will be rather hard if we go through it three or four more times," she pointed out. "And we still have to raise those kids, which is not an easy thing. How much time to spend alone do you reckon we'll have if we have four more kids to raise? Not to mention the abstinence that comes with pregnancy."

"Alright, you do have a point there," he gave in. "But I can't help it – I think we'd find a way to manage. Molly and Arthur did. I was hoping we could reach the seven barrier…"

"Dream on," she said with a laugh. "I bet I wouldn't look so great after having four more kids."

"Love, you will _always _look great to me. But you know I'll be happy with as many kids as you're willing to give me Mia," he told her. To be honest, not so long ago, back in Azkaban, he'd been so lost that having children hadn't been anything more than a distant fantasy.

He turned to glance at them and saw Izzy approaching the loungers with a towel-wrapped Alex in her arms and Harry following her.

"He's getting fussy," Izzy said when she reached them. "I think he's asking for a nap."

"Finally," Sirius said under his breath.

Mia chuckled at his reaction and reached out with her arms to receive her son. Izzy passed her the baby, who snuggled closer as soon as he saw himself in his mother's arms. Mia pressed the kiss on the little boy's forehead as he yawned and Alex let out a tiny whimper.

"Well, looks like we have to get back to the villa and put the little bloke to sleep," Sirius said, sitting up on the lounger before he climbed out of it.

"We can go with you if you want to and help packing in the meanwhile," Harry suggested.

"Oh, don't bother," Mia said as she joined her husband with the baby on her arms, chewing his own hand. "We'll do it ourselves. It's so much easier to do when we can use magic… And then maybe we'll take a few hours of rest."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's your last day here. Enjoy it because we're leaving tonight at eleven."

Izzy groaned and crossed her arms. "Can't we stay one more week? Maybe two?"

"Aren't you two already bored of spending all the time in the pool?" her father asked them. "Don't you miss your friends at all?"

"You never get bored when you're in a pool," Harry replied. "And you could bring them here too, you know?"

"Yeah, I bet you'd just love to see a certain friend of yours in her swimming clothes," Sirius joked.

Harry turned completely red and, if she didn't know better, Mia would say he'd gotten some sort of instant sunburn. She elbowed her husband on the ribs. "Don't be such a kid," she told him, rubbing Alex's back as he rested sleepily against her chest. "Well, we'll just get going."

"Yeah, you two use the pool while you still can," Sirius told them. At least that would keep them away from the villa and provide him and Mia with some loving time.

From their spots, Izzy and Harry watched them walk away together with eyebrows rose and, when they were out of sight, Izzy turned to Harry.

"They're gonna do _it_ again, aren't they?" she said with a slightly grossed out look on her face. "Ugh."

Harry frowned. "I really don't wanna know."

---

It was around three in the morning in London when they arrived back and went straight to bed, trying to catch up with their sleep.

Still, when Lulu showed up by nine in the morning, Mia, who sat by the kitchen table in her robe drinking a cup of the strongest tea she could make, didn't seem that much awake.

"Well, don't you look dashing this morning? And here I thought of you as an early riser," Lulu said, jokingly.

"Jet-lag," Mia said, putting her hand in front of her mouth to cover a yawn.

"So take a stimulant potion," Lulu suggested as she took a seat in front of her daughter.

Mia shook her head. "I don't like it –makes me jumpy. I think I'm just going back to bed and sleep after you leave. That's what everyone else in the house is doing."

"Well, I've just arrived and you already want me gone," Lulu said in a mock-offended tone. "Nice of you. At least tell me how the vacations were."

"Paradise," Mia said. "It was like there were no worries in the world at all. But all good things have to come to an end… Just when we arrived Kreacher mentioned something about another order meeting tomorrow that Dumbledore asked him to inform us of. Merlin, the madness starts again."

"Yeah, I've heard of it too," Lulu said, nonchalantly. "So, have you read the paper yet?"

Mia shook her head and nodded at the kitchen counter. "I've barely been up for more than ten minutes, Lu. Why? Is there something important in it?"

"There's a bunch of crap that I'd say you'd be interested in. Long story short, the ministry's been playing a dirty game lately," Lulu said. Of course, she was softening the whole situation by a lot. "Take my advice and don't read it if you want to have some rest this morning. In fact," she got up, reached for the newspaper on the counter and then came back to the table, "I'll take it with me so you won't feel tempted. I'll come back later today when you don't look like something that's not quite alive and tell you about it."

Mia raised an eyebrow at her. "Is it that bad?"

"Depends on the point of view. There were no attacks if that's what you're worrying about – we'll talk about this later."

She nodded. "Alright, I'll take your word for it. Hum, so how's… Gabriel?" Mia asked, trying not to sound interested.

Lulu sighed – she'd been waiting for her to ask. "He's fine. Moody and Dumbledore came around the other day – apparently they think the ministry won't be so open to consider his 'return from the dead' thing so, for all intents and purposes, outside the order he'll be called Gable McDermott – that was the alias he was using back in South Africa. And he also has to wear glamour charms whenever he goes to Diagon Alley and other wizarding places so nobody will recognize him. It's not the perfect solution but it works for now."

Mia nodded. "I guess it does. And will he keep staying with you in your flat?" she asked casually.

"Yes. I think we've reached an understanding there, even set some ground rules. Plus, I had enough space. It's not like I needed an office for anything but shoving stuff I didn't feel like putting away in it. He's tidy, so I guess he's made himself some space in it," Lulu explained. "Does us being flatmates bother you?"

Mia sighed. "Not really. It's your place and if it works for you, it works for me. But you two are not back…?"

"No," Lulu said before she could finish. "We're not together. That would only make things messy and weirder than they are. We've reached an understanding there – there's too much in between."

"Oh, alright."

"He's trying to give you space, Mia" Lulu informed her, feeling an awkward silence, which she just didn't have patience for, was coming. "We've talked about you but he's waiting for you to take the first step with him because he understands that this is strange to you."

Mia bit her lower lip. "It's not so much anymore. I mean, it still is but I've had time to think about it during the trip. I think you can tell him to come," Mia told her, to Lulu's surprise. "It's time Gabriel and I talked – I just need to get this over with. _We_ need to set ground rules like the two of you did or else this whole thing will be haunting us. So, bring him over here for us to talk it through. Today, if you can."

"You sure?" Lulu asked her in hesitation.

She covered another yawn before answering him. "As sure as I can be."

"Well, if you say so… I'll bring Gabe here this afternoon if nothing comes up," her mother said, getting up from the table. "Now, I'll just get going. You go back to bed and sleep, cuddle or get laid."

Mia rolled her eyes as she got up too. "Have I ever told you are completely out of the ordinary? What sort of mother tells her daughter to go get laid?"

"_I_ do," Lulu told her with a shrug. "You get going. I know my way out."

Shaking her head, Mia left the room and climbed up the stairs to her room, where she found Sirius sleeping soundly. She removed her robe and climbed into bed, wrapping herself around him. Still asleep, probably instinctively, he placed one arm around her and she relaxed. She needed her rest for that afternoon.

---

That afternoon, while Harry and Izzy had, once more, gone to the Burrow, Mia lounged on the living room sofa, her head resting on her husband's lap as she waited for Lulu and Gabriel to arrive.

"Are you really sure you're ready to face him now, Mia?" Sirius asked her as he rubbed her hair. "You were a mess a week ago – I don't want you to become that way again. Maybe you could wait a few days. We've just gotten back."

Mia sighed. "I won't, I promise. I had time to think, to consider things, and I think I'm ready as ready as I can get. I owe him this, Sirius."

His hand, ran down one of her long locks of hair. "Alright. But do you want me to stay?" he asked. "I won't leave your side if you want me to. It will help."

She shook her head and sat up. "I have to do this alone – I can do this."

He nodded and reached for her hand, pulling her closer so she was resting against his side, one of his arms wrapped around her. Though he wished he could be there with her like she'd been there for him when he'd needed her the most, he understood that she needed to do this on her own. He hoped, for their sake, that the conversation would go well and that it gave Mia the peace of mind she needed.

The talked a little more until, at some point, Kreacher showed up, announcing Lulu had arrived with Gabriel and, after telling Kreacher to send him up, they waited for him to arrive.

The first thing Gabriel saw when he entered that room was Mia being given a soft kiss on her cheek by her husband and he knew, if he still had any doubt, that she was in good hands.

Sirius got up and gave him a nod when he saw him. They had never been particularly close during the first war but they had always respected each other, mostly due to their common worry about Mia in battle. "Gabriel," Sirius said. "Be easy on her."

"Never even thought otherwise," Gabriel assured him.

Sirius nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving him alone with Mia.

She gulped one last time before saying anything to Gabriel. "Hi," she said, her throat feeling as dry as a desert as she said it. "Please, sit down."

"Thanks," he said, before occupying an armchair. At first, he didn't know what to say, so he waited for her to start. As the seconds passed, he saw that wasn't happening, so he realized he's need to take the first step and say something casual. "So, how were your vacations?"

"They were good," Mia said nervously. "Relaxing."

He nodded. "Good. I… I wanted to thank you again for what you did in the Shrieking Shack. You know, proving Moody it was really me."

"It was the right thing to do. He was being an arse."

Once again, he nodded. "Yeah, he's been that way since I've known him. So, I guess we should get to the point of this talk."

She sighed. "Yeah, we should." She paused, thinking of a good way to start. "I used this vacation to think… a lot. One of the things I thought about was what I should… do about you."

"Mia, before you say anything, I just want you to know that whatever you decide, I'll go along with it," he assured her.

Mia gave him a nod – somehow, him saying that put her more on ease. She could almost feel normal around him. She took a deep breath before talking. "I won't ask you to stay out of my life. It wouldn't be fair to you and, honestly, I don't want it." She paused for a few seconds before getting to the hard part. "But truth is… I don't have a place for a father in my life, Gabriel. I might have had it in the past but nobody filled it in and I got used to having that place empty. Merlin knows that maybe one day I'll be able to let you fill it but not right now."

It hurt to hear that but he understood. The title of father was earned, not given. He'd known that for a long time. "I wasn't expecting you to welcome me as a father, Mia. You're all grown up, you're married, you have kids… You've built a life without my help and, from what I've heard, you've done pretty well despite the obstacles that showed up on your way. You know I'll always wish this would be different but… I thought you were dead for years and knowing you're not is enough to make me happy."

That made her smile – she knew what it was like having back in her life someone she'd nearly lost hope on getting back. She'd felt it with Sirius. "I'm glad you're alive too," she told him, meaning every word of it. "Despite everything, I'm still very fond of you, Gabriel. You were always looking out for me in a fight, probably saved my life more times than I know. And you were a good friend. I think trying to get that friendship back is the best I can offer you."

He nodded and smiled. "I'd like that."

"And just because I don't have a place for you in my life as a father, it doesn't mean I'm forbidding you from having some sort of relationship with my kids. If they want you to be their grandfather and you want it too, I won't stand on the way."

Gabriel gave her a surprised look. "Really?"

Mia nodded. "They've never had a grandfather, so who am I to refuse giving them one when it's possible? Just try not to spoil them too much – Sirius does enough by himself. How much has Lulu told you about them?"

"Just a bit," he said. "I know one of them is Harry Potter and that you took him when Voldemort killed his parents. I know your daughter – Izzy, isn't it? – was born after you went into hiding and that Sirius was in Azkaban when it happened. And I know the youngest one, Alex, is just a baby."

"That's right," she confirmed. "Did she tell you that Alex's middle name is Gabriel?"

He looked at her in astonishment – that one had completely taken him by surprise. "No, she didn't mention that."

"Well, it is," Mia said. "It was mostly for Lulu – I'll deny if you ever tell her I said this to you, but she's been grieving you for over a decade. That's not something most people do for an old flame. Anyway, we thought the name would make her happy." In a way, it had been for him too but she didn't want to tell him that just yet.

"Your mother is a very complicated person," he said with a sigh. "One needs years to figure her out. Even longer to know how to read her."

Mia nodded in agreement. "But it's worth it, once you do. Take care of her, would you? She may be strong but it wouldn't hurt having someone keeping an eye on her."

"I will," he promised. And, once again, silence followed.

She felt as is if a heavy weight had been lifted from her chest and was about to suggest they went downstairs but there was a knock on the door that interrupted her. She turned around to see Sirius opening the door and looking at her with a troubled expression on his face. "I hope I'm not interrupting something, but you sounded like you were done with the conversation."

"We were," Mia said. "What is it?"

"I have something here that you might want to see," he said as he stepped further into the room, followed by Lulu and gave her the edition of the Daily Prophet she'd taken with her earlier that day. It took one glance at the headline to have Mia furious.

'_HARRY POTTER: THE ATTENTION JUNKIE'_

She stared at the headline in disbelief before she read several sentences where the reporter, strangely not Rita Skeeter, questioned her godson's sanity and vehemently claimed he had made up the whole story about Voldemort being back. She didn't even finish the article, feeling sick, and looked up at Lulu. "So, this was what you meant earlier when you said I shouldn't read the paper."

"Yes," her mother told her. "It's been going on ever since you left for your vacations. Dumbledore thinks Fudge has been planting those stories to keep everyone from believing Voldemort is back."

"I can't believe him!" Mia said, rage blazing in her eyes. "You know what? I hope that if You-Know-Who strikes, Fudge is the first one to go – it will give him a chance to swallow his own words before he gets wacked. Trashing a kid – what a son of a bitch."

"What's that dimwit doing as the minister, anyway?" Gabriel asked. "I remember him working on the Department of Magical Incidents and Catastrophes. A lazy rat who thought he could boss everyone around and only cared about his own image. That's low, even for him."

"Wouldn't put it in a better way," Sirius said, gritting his teeth before he turned to his wife again. "And have you read the part when some ministry chick – Umbridge, I think – blames his 'need for attention' on the, I quote, '_cold upbringing he's received from his neglecting godmother_'? I have a policy against hitting woman but that one might become the first. If you're cold, she's bloody Siberia."

"Why do I feel like this isn't the last they'll do to us?" Mia asked.

"Because it probably isn't," Lulu said simply. "What are you two going to do now?"

"Now? Now we're cancelling our subscription to this trash," she said, throwing the newspaper carelessly onto the floor. "Then we'll have to tell have to tell Harry. As if he doesn't have enough worries already…"

**A/N: So, how did you like this? Once again, I appologise for the late update - I could have posted yesterday night but the chapter wasn't quite like I wanted it, so I used this morning to make it the way I liked. Hopw you've enjoyed it. Hopefully, it won't be long before I finish all this moutain of college work and are able to update normally - wish me luck. Send some feedback. Review!**


	41. Expelled

After months meeting in the Shrieking Shack and rotating between the homes of some members, by late August 1995 the Order of the Phoenix finally had its own headquarters – the house in Muggle London where Lily and James had lived in the first year of their marriage.

Harry had found its key when they'd gone to his Gringotts' vault and, after a brief visit to it, he'd offered the lower ground floor apartment, with its independent and discrete entrance via the alley behind the townhouse, for the Order to use… that was, as long as he and his friends were allowed to be there too whenever there were order meetings, even if they couldn't be in the meeting's room. Of course, there were other ways for them to know what was being said in the meeting.

The thick protection wards on the house had been set by James's father himself, Christopher Potter, who'd been one of the greatest aurors of his time and, like many aurors, had grown rather obsessed with his family's safety. So, no document in the ministry would ever relate that house to the Potter family and nobody would be able to get in it without its owner's clearance. All in all, it was a fortress, especially after Dumbledore's ward reinforcements.

In the twenty-sixth of August another order meeting had been called, the last before the new school year at Hogwarts started.

"What are you thinking of?" Sirius asked his wife as he sat by her side at the headquarter's kitchen's table, while they waited for everyone else to arrive to the meeting.

Mia sighed. "This place. It makes me nostalgic. This was the place, I mean, upstairs was the place, where Lily and James were supposed to have raised Harry and their other kids. Makes you think, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I had a strange feeling in the moment I walked through the door again," Sirius said. "Just before, I opened a closet and James's old broomstick all but fell on me. A Nimbus 1500 – the top model in our seventh year. I was thinking that maybe we could have it fixed and give it to Harry next Christmas. I doubt it will ever fly as fast as today's brooms but I think the history of that broom will make up for it. What do you think?"

She chuckled. "I think I don't know a thing about broomsticks but I can see how that is a good idea. James would like Harry to have his broom."

"Maybe one day in the future he'll move into this place and create a family here," he told her.

Mia smiled. "Yeah, maybe one day."

Sirius leaned to kiss her brow. "_Surely _one day. Well, I think I'll go see if Moony's here yet – he's been sulking way too much lately."

"Are you going to tell him to get a girlfriend?" she asked in amusement. "It's getting sort of old. He never actually listens, Sirius."

"Sweetheart, my dear mother, may her soul rest in hell forever, always said that with enough persistence, people will give in to anything," Sirius told her, to Mia's confusion. When did he ever consider his hag of a mother right about something? But he continued. "Of course, she was wrong in the context, as that maxim usually came when I told her to piss off with her blood purist crap. But as I'm not trying to feed old Moony with evil values, I may have a shot at making him give in to it."

Mia chuckled. "Well, good luck with that."

He flashed her a grin before heading to the kitchen's door, almost bumping into Lulu in his way out and quickly apologizing.

"Ah, there you are," Lulu said as she stepped into the kitchen. "What are you doing here by yourself? There's something called socializing – it's very common among human beings and some say it's also healthy."

Mia shrugged. "I wasn't by myself until a few moment ago – Sirius was here. And I haven't been feeling very social lately. The bloody papers every day calling Harry and Dumbledore a bunch of lunatics don't put me in a very good mood."

"Wait, hadn't you cancelled the subscription?" Lulu inquired.

"I was planning to but Harry insisted we kept receiving the papers – he wants to know what's being said. It makes sense in a way but… it sucks, Lu. It's my kid and I can't do a thing about it."

Lulu nodded. "I imagine it feels really bad. Well, I did cancel that piece of rubbish and subscribed the Quibbler instead. Gabe's always complaining that it has no news that can even pretend to be believable but it does give us a bunch of priceless laughs in the morning."

Mia sighed. "Well, maybe when the kids get back to school I'll do the same. My patience can only handle so much."

"Good. Now get up from that chair and go join everyone else in the meeting room," Lulu instructed her, grabbing her arm and pulling her up to her feet. "Come on."

Knowing it was worthless fighting Lulu, she just let herself be dragged – when Lulu decided on something, there was no saying 'no' to it.

In the meeting room, she saw Sirius standing by Remus's side, pointing at several unmarried women in the room as if cataloguing them to him and receiving increasingly annoyed looks by his old friend. Elizabeth was also there, chatting lively with Kingsley Shacklebolt, Molly and Arthur Weasley by the elliptic table that was settled in the middle of the room.

"Hiding in the kitchen. She certainly doesn't get the antisocial trait from me," Lulu said as soon as they reached Gabriel.

"Leave her alone, Luce. Not everyone has to be as disconcertingly extroverted as you are," he replied, half amused.

Lulu rolled her eyes. "That's what makes the world the way it is. A stupid mess."

"Oh, I'm sure that's true," he said sarcastically before turning to Mia. "How are you doing Mia? I've noticed the kids aren't here today."

"I'm good," Mia replied casually. The month and half that had passed since Gabriel had been revealed to be alive had certainly helped reducing the awkwardness between them, especially because her kids had grown quite attached to him. She could say there were walking towards that friendship they used to have. That was, if they weren't there already. A father/daughter relationship, however, was very far away and neither of them insisted on it. "And no, the kids are not here. Kreacher is watching Alex as usual and the other two opted not to grace us with their presences today. They're at the playground across the street with their friends. So, how's the new job?"

"Not bad. At this time of the year there isn't much movement at the apothecary… or so the owner says. But using the Glamour charms all day long is rather uncomfortable," he told her, scratching his own chin as if feeling the phantom itch that the charms made him feel.

Just seconds later, Dumbledore entered the room, calmly asking the members of the Order to gather at the middle of the room. Mia quickly excused herself from Lulu and Gabe and moved to her husband's side before they sat by the table.

The headmaster proceeded to tell them the news about several members that had been or still were busy in Order duties and gathering allies. His briefing went on for several minutes. Plans to watch the ministry's actions were discussed and assigned, new missions were set and other business was talked.

About ten minutes after the meeting's official start, several bangs were heard in the room, coming from the back door of the house. Nearly everyone raised their wands in alarm and Dumbledore himself lead a group of five, Sirius included, to the back door. The headmaster carefully opened the door to show Izzy and Ginny standing outside, looking very pale and scared.

"Dementors," Ginny said. "There are Dementors outside. They're surrounding Harry, Ron and Hermione."

---

**Outside – minutes earlier**

"You know, I'm sort of disappointed that Fred and George didn't come," Izzy declared as she sat on a swing of a deserted muggle playground near the headquarters. "Order meetings without extendable ears to eavesdrop from the kitchen are boring."

"Well, they had to go to Lee Jordan's this time," Ginny said from a bench where she sat uncomfortably between Ron and Hermione, who'd been staying at Grimmauld Place for the past week. "Said they 'have a whole new season of pranking coming up and need to get prepared to it'."

Ron groaned. "I wish they'd taken me too."

"Oh, thanks for stating how boring we are, mate," Harry said, shooting him a mock-offended look from his seat at the bottom of slide.

"Oh, shut up," Ron mumbled. "You know what I mean – with Fred and George you'd even have fun in a funeral. But they've sort of been avoiding me since I've received the prefect's badge. It's like they're afraid I'll be like Percy, that traitorous bastard."

Nobody said a word about his comment concerning Percy – ever since he'd left the Weasleys to take the ministry's side, the air tended to become rather heavy when his name was mentioned.

Hermione coughed before talking. "Ron, being a prefect is something to be proud of, not ashamed. Just because someone who used to have the title turned out to be a… 'traitorous bastard' it doesn't mean you'll be one too."

"Plus, Mum and Dad gave you a broomstick because of it while I'm stuck with the old brooms," Ginny mumbled.

"Sirius has given me a golden snitch for not making prefect," Harry pointed out. He knew, though, that it had been his godfather's way of trying to cheer him up for not having made prefect, not that it meant so much to him. All in all, it had been amusing seeing himself being rewarded for the opposite reason Ron was. "He said I'll get a flying motorbike if I don't make Head Boy too, as long as Aunt Mia never finds out."

Izzy chuckled as she tried to put the swing in motion. "Oh, she will. She always manages to find out when we do something we shouldn't. And when she does find out, Death Eaters will be the least of your worries because she'll make sure you'll be permanently attached to your bedroom's floor."

Harry shrugged. "Sirius would probably come later and reverse the spell."

She snorted as the swing oscillated like a pendulum. "I meant Mom would do all that to you _after_ she's done with Dad. He'll probably need years of therapy to forget whatever punishment she gives him."

Harry gulped. "Hum, hopefully by that time we'll have more siblings to distract her and she'll never find out."

Ginny shook her head at him. "There were seven of us in the house and that didn't keep Mom from keeping us all under her watch – it's just the way moms are. But we'd probably visit you during your seclusion. Do you think I could have the Firebolt then? At least someone would be enjoying it while you were grounded."

Ron elbowed her. "I'm his best mate, I should get the firebolt."

His sister elbowed him back. "But you already have a broom that doesn't suck!"

Harry rolled his eyes before turning to Hermione, who'd just gotten up from the bench she'd been sharing with the two siblings to avoid being accidentally hit in the fight. "This is nice. I'm not even grounded yet and they're already fighting over who inherits my broomstick. Some friends I have."

"I can assure you I'll never take part on fighting over a broomstick," Hermione told him. "But Sirius was kidding about the motorcycle, wasn't he? That is dangerous. Remember that incident with the flying car?"

"Don't remind me," Harry groaned.

"That's my point – do you really want to get killed in such a stupid way? Sirius had to be kidding."

"He probably wasn't," Izzy told Hermione. "Dad used to have one himself." Then, she turned to Harry. "But wait, did he mention if I'll get something like that if I don't make prefect and Head Girl? Because I'd be willing to spend all year in detention if I got a flying motorcycle out of it."

Hermione huffed. "Doesn't anybody listen to me? Your mother is a Hogwarts teacher – she'll know of any detention you get right away. And she won't be so happy. Besides, wasting precious dozens of hours of your life in detention can't possibly be worth a flying motorcycle."

Izzy was about to reply but, before she could say anything, the warm summer breeze became chilling all of a sudden and she stopped the swing. The sun up in the sky became covered by dark clouds and a fog started to appear in the air.

The feeling of uneasiness and depression that followed was far from being unknown to any of them. They'd felt it before, mostly nearly two years before when Sirius had been on the run. It was Dementors.

Before any of them could think of running, the floating grey figures appeared from all sides, coming fast in their direction. The closer it got, the colder it felt. The deeper they sunk. The Dementors, at least eight of them, were trapping them inside and, they knew, they weren't fast enough to escape the cage by running – the creatures were all faster and able to suck any bit of confidence they might possess out of them.

Despite the weight on his chest and the screams he knew to belong to his mother in his head, Harry managed to reach for his wand, clutching it hard. He knew that, of all five of them, he was the only one who could successfully perform a Patronus charm and, if he was lucky enough to be able to concentrate, might send one, maybe two, of the Dementors away, open a hole on the cage and enable some of them to run to the headquarters and call for help.

He summoned the happiest thoughts he could get out of that dark pit the Dementors were drowning him in. "Expecto Patronum!" he said. A silvery bit of silvery smoke shot from the tip of the wand and one of the Dementors hesitated, but the spell was far from having done its job. It didn't take long for the creature to recover and resume its approaching, along with the others.

He needed to cast a full Patronus if he wanted to give any chance to his plan. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" he yelled again, with all the confidence he could summon. And this time the familiar silver stag appeared, making two of the Dementors float away, which opened a hole in the cage. "Izzy, Ginny, go call for help!" he shouted, knowing the two younger girls were the closest to the opening. "I think I can hold it back for a while. Go and call for help. Now!"

They did and seconds after they escaped, the opening closed. He managed to hold the Patronus for a few more minutes but, eventually, the circle of Dementors started growing stronger and the Patronus weaker. But in the same moment the stag disappeared, several other silvery figures appeared: a lynx, a dog, a horse… Sirius, Mia, Dumbledore and numerous other members of the Order were standing by, pointing their wands at the Dementors and successfully chasing them away with their Patronuses.

Eventually, all the Dementors were gone and he felt someone grabbing his arm from behind, making him turn around to see his godmother standing there.

Mia took a deep breath and pulled him into a relieved hug."Are you alright? Do you feel faint? Do you need…"

"I'm okay," he said before he pulled away and took a few seconds to breathe. "I'm okay, really. What were Dementors doing here in the middle of London?!"

She shook her head. "We don't know," Mia told him, a little out of breath. "Come on, let's get you out of here, Harry."

Harry nodded and Mia put one arm around him protectively before quickly walking him into the headquarters, while others stayed behind to make sure the Dementors wouldn't come back.

He saw Sirius standing with Dumbledore and Kingsley Shacklebold right by the lower ground floor's entrance, talking with sober tones on their faces

"… I'll need to report this and call the obliviators right away – there may be muggles who saw this from their homes," Kingsley Shacklebolt was telling Dumbledore, when he and Mia walked by.

"I'll tell the rest of the members of the order to leave – if all of them were here, the ministry might ask too many questions," the headmaster said before turning to Harry and forcing an approving smile. "Mr. Potter, that was an impressive Patronus you casted. Vary advanced for your age indeed. I'm afraid we may have been underestimating your ability to defend yourself."

"Th… thank you, professor," Harry mumbled, blushing a little at the praises, giving more colour to the pale expression he had.

Sirius placed a hand on his shoulder. "You do realize you've just saved the day, right? Again. How do you feel now, kid? You gave us a scare before."

"I feel fine, just a bit… shaky," he said. The others are alright, aren't they?"

His godfather nodded. "Yes, they're all in the kitchen being mothered by Molly."

Harry breathed in relief, then. "So, what happens now?"

"Now, you go home and stay there, while we handle the rest," Mia said firmly. "Remember our agreement – let us take care of things and we'll tell you what we can."

Part of Harry wanted to refuse it but he didn't feel so great at the moment. It was one of those times when knew that he didn't stand a chance trying to fight his godmother. He'd give it a rest at the moment.

"Well, you can to the kitchen and see the others," Mia told him. "We just need to discuss something and then we'll take you home."

Harry nodded and made his way to the kitchen. Now that he was walking by himself, his feet felt heavy as bricks and he was exhausted by the time he reached the kitchen. _At least I didn't pass out like last time,_ he thought.

He saw the others sitting by the table, wrapped with thick blanket probably conjured by Molly, who was serving them hot tea.

"Oh, Harry, dear. Come here and sit them – you look terrible," Molly said as soon as she saw him, walking to him and pulling him onto a chair and placing a cup of tea in front of him. "Oh, that owl has just arrived for you." The redheaded woman pointed at a tiny black own that was right standing on the battered kitchen table.

He reaching for the owl, wondering what it was there for. He got hold of the letter in no time and immediately gulped when he saw it. It had no address, probably because the house couldn't be detected by means of magic, but he guessed the owl shared Hedwig's capacity of finding people out of instinct. But what scared him the most was the ministry's seal. Had they finally decided to arrest him for telling everyone Voldemort was back and had sent the Dementors to get him? He ripped open the envelope, wanting to just get on with it and started reading the letter.

_Dear Mr. Potter, _

_We have received intelligence that you performed the Patronus Charm at twenty-three minutes past __six this evening in a Muggle-inhabited area. _

_The severity of this breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery has resulted in your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ministry representatives will be calling at your place of residence shortly to destroy your wand. _

_Hoping you are well, _

_Yours sincerely, _

_Mafalda Hopkirk _

_Improper Use of Magic Office _

_Ministry of Magic_

He knew his face had gone blank – completely blank. That couldn't be. They couldn't… Or could they? Maybe they did. He'd preformed underage magic, after all – it was against the rules. His only comfort right now was that they couldn't destroy his wand as the ministry still foolishly believed he and his family lived in the old Davis house back in Wales. And they'd never get into Grimmauld Place or that house…

"Mate, are you alright?" Ron asked with caution. Was he having a fit or something?

Izzy wasn't half as delicate and, as soon as she reached him with her arm, ripped the letter from his hands to see what it said. She'd barely read one paragraph before understanding what it was. "Mum! Dad!" she called loudly. They had to know a way to fix that.

A few seconds passed and they heard footsteps outside before Sirius and Mia entered the room, followed by Dumbledore, and Izzy silently passed her mother the letter.

Mia's face visibly changed as she read the later: from nervousness to confusion and then to anger. Sirius, who also read the paper over her shoulder, didn't react so differently. "I cannot believe… this is preposterous!" she said. "They cannot expel Harry for having used magic to save his life! Someone lit the bloody fireplace because I'm going there and…"

"Amelia, please calm down and let me read the note," Dumbledore said, stretching his hand to receive the sheet of parchment. She bit her lip not to scream in anger and passed it to the headmaster.

Sirius grasped her shoulder. "Nobody here is being expelled. That will only happen over my dead body." Then he looked directly at Harry. "I'll go to the ministry to make them reinstate you by pointing my wand at their heads if I have to."

"That won't be necessary," Dumbledore told him, refolding the letter. "Cornelius has obviously forgotten that Hogwarts is not under his power – the ministry has no authority to suspend or expel my students and I can assure all of you that I'll personally make sure this expulsion doesn't take place. I'd advise you, Harry, to go home with your friends and wait for my contact. All of you, try not to worry too much about this. As long as I'm the headmaster of Hogwarts, nobody will be expelled from without a rational reason. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go talk to Cornelius."

"Give him my _best wishes_," Sirius said through his teeth as the headmaster quickly retreated. _And a well-placed punch in the face_, he added in his thoughts. Merlin knew if anyone deserved a good punch these days, it was Cornelius Fudge. And he hoped to be the one to provide him with it, sometime.

"Fudge is going too far," Mia murmured after they'd left the kitchen. "Merlin knows what he may do next."

Sirius snarled. "Let him try to do worse, Mia. He'll have to deal with me if he dares messing with out kid more than he already does."

**A/N: Next chapter is halfway done, so I may be able to update sooner... I know I've been failing lately but the second year of college seems to be complicated when it comes to papers. Hope you liked this one. Feedback is very welcome. Review!**


	42. At the Ministry

On the same day Harry had been expelled from Hogwarts, he'd also been readmitted. A few hours after the first, a second message from the ministry arrived, informing Harry of his readmission and consecutive suspension from Hogwarts until he attended a disciplinary hearing at the ministry, scheduled to take place in two days by eleven in the morning.

His godparents hadn't exactly been happy with that but at least they knew Harry would have a chance – or at least they hoped so – to present his defence.

In the meanwhile, the environment had grown tense at Grimmauld Place with everyone, especially Harry, silently wondering if he'd manage to get himself off the hook but always saying the opposite whenever speaking up. Only Alex, they assumed, in own his infant innocence and obliviousness, remained untouched by the tension, as he seemed to be as in a good mood as he usually was.

Finally, when the day of the hearing came, they went to the ministry incredibly early at Harry's request. Ron, Hermione, Izzy and Ginny had wanted to go too, in order to testify in Harry's defence but Dumbledore had stated that Sirius and Mia's testimonies would be enough.

"He's gonna be fine," Sirius told his wife as they walked through the ministry's main hallway, Harry a few steps ahead of them. "Hermione's been reading law books at our place's library and I've heard her saying at least half a dozen times that nearly all of them state that 'underage magic can be justified if the underage witch or wizard's life and/or well-being is at stake'."

Mia sighed. "I think that has been established already, Sirius. And for reason they've tried to expel Harry anyway."

"Fudge is not the law," Sirius said. "I'll make sure he knows that by the end of the hearing, Mia."

She grasped his hand harder. "Sometimes I don't know what will be worse: Harry not going to Hogwarts or going. With this bloody news at the Daily Prophet, people will be horrible to him."

"He's fifteen, Mia, and, from what I've know, people have been horrible to him – he'll know how to handle himself," Sirius told her just as they he saw Kingsley Shacklebolt approaching them in a hurried pace.

He and Mia kept walking as Kingsley made his way right by them and passed Sirius a ripped piece of parchment with something scribbled in it. He clutched the parchment in his fist and waited until he was farther ahead to read it, trying not to call too much attention.

_Audience__'s time and place have been changed to the Wizengamot court in the Dungeons at 8.30 AM. _

"That son of a bitch," Sirius mumbled, stopping. It was 8.25 already.

"What is it?" Mia asked him before he passed her the note.

That one had made it for Sirius. It was bad enough there would be an audience at all for something as mild as a self-defence underage magic case, but there was just no way he'd let them treat Harry like a criminal – be judged in the same pit as they were. If Fudge wanted to play dirty, he'd picked the wrong person to do it with. At some point, Harry had made his way past them and was reading the note in Mia's hands too

"I won't let this happen. You two stay here while I take care of this," he told them before he walked away in a hurry.

Sirius made his way to the lift and down to the wizengamot, where he hoped to find Fudge. The lift, though faster than a muggle model, felt awfully slow as Sirius was in such a hurry, which only helped the fury he was feeling to raise even more. Then, when the lift finally stopped in the dungeons, he quickly walked the way to the wizengamot's court room, in front of whose door he saw Fudge, standing cockily in his robes, talking to a fellow member of the court.

"Fudge!" he called, approaching the minister in long, heavy steps.

Fudge's face turned to him and gave him sort of an annoyed look before whispering something to the other man, who left, glancing suspiciously at Sirius as well. "Black, I shouldn't talk to you before the audien…"

"Forget the audience, Fudge. I've had enough of you. I think the whole bloody country has had enough of you but that's a matter for another day," he told the minister.

"This is not an appropriate way to adress…"

"Oh, shut up!" Sirius told him in an 'I don't have time for your crap' tone. He lowered his voice to a calmer, but not a bit less firm, tone. "What I'm here to say is that I won't allow this – you are taking this too far. I won't allow my godson to be put in the middle of that courtroom and judged by the wizengamot as a _criminal_."

"Then, he'll be expelled," Fudge said firmly.

"No, he won't," Sirius replied. "If you don't want to believe Voldemort is back, then fine, don't believe it – when people start getting killed then don't come crying on us because we've told you so. But trashing a kid on a newspaper every bloody day because he's said otherwise and trying to get him kicked out of school is way too much! You are ruining his life!"

Fudge's face was red with fury – he wasn't, in any way, used to have people standing up to him in such matters. "Black, you are stepping over the line," he said through his teeth. "Things are simple – Potter has broken the Underage Magic restrictions and, according to the law, either he comes to the audience and proves, somehow, that he's innocent, or he'll be expelled from…"

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," a familiar voice came from behind Sirius, who turned around to see Dumbledore arriving. The headmaster walked closer to them in a calm pace and his face didn't show any expression until he reached them. "The Ministry does not have the power to expel Hogwarts students, Cornelius, as I reminded you two nights ago. Nor does it have the right to confiscate wands until charges have been successfully proven; again, as I reminded you on two nights ago. In your admirable haste to ensure that the law is upheld, you appear, inadvertently I am sure, to have overlooked a few laws yourself."

"Laws can be changed," Fudge remarked defiantly.

"Of course they can," Dumbledore acknowledged. "And you certainly seem to be making many changes, Cornelius. Why, in the few short weeks since I was asked to leave the wizengamot, it has already become the practice to hold a full criminal trial to deal with a simple matter of underage magic! As Sirius has said, you are indeed going too far, Cornelius. Harry Potter has been charged with a specific offence and he has the right to present his defence in an audience that follows the usual procedure, as long as it is possible. In case you have forgotten said procedure, let me remind you: in a matter of underage magic, it is a simple audience behind closed doors and certainly not with the whole Wizengamot present or the minister himself leading the questioning. I believe what Sirius is demanding is for that right to apply."

Sirius smiled in an audacious way. "Unless, like this ministry did years ago with _some people_, you want to ignore Harry's rights and send him right to the punishment. I bet the International Confederation of Wizards would love to hear that. They're the ones who usually sack ministers for incompetence, aren't they?"

Fudge gritted his teeth and, if it was possible, his face became even redder. For a moment, he didn't say a word, maybe trying to increase the tension, maybe just thinking. And then, he spoke. "Tell Potter to be in my office in fifteen minutes."

"With his guardians and defence witnesses present, of course," Dumbledore added. "It's his right, Cornelius."

Now, it looked as if Fudge was about to explode. "Fine! Bring the cat and the dog too if you want," he snapped. "Now, if excuse me, I have things to do." And he very rudely turned around, making his way into the court room, to call the audience off.

Sirius sighed. "That went well."

Dumbledore nodded. "As well as it could have gone, I'd say. Cornelius has been trying to stretch his authority lately. I'm not sure if this confrontation will put an end to it out of fear or simply make him angrier."

"Judging by his face, I'd bet on the last one," Sirius said as they turned around to make their ways back to the lift.

For a moment, he was surprised to see Mia along with Harry standing at the end of the hallway, waiting for him. His wife looked rather worried, while Harry kept staring at a plain black door at the end of a corridor at his right.

"How did it go?" Mia asked him.

"Harry will get a private audience," he told her. "But Fudge is not so happy about it." His face shifted to a grin. "You should have seen the idiot's face – he looked like he was ready to blow up."

"Sirius!" she said, giving him a disapproving tone. It wasn't that she didn't feel happy with Fudge's frustration. She was, however, aware that what Sirius had just pulled on him might have gone incredibly wrong.

"What? It was priceless," he told her, before turning to Harry and seeing him still staring at the black door. "Harry, are you with us?"

The younger boy shivered in surprise for a moment before turning his eyes from the door to the Sirius. "Hum, yeah, I'm fine. It's just…" he turned to Dumbledore. "That door… what does it lead to?"

Dumbledore coughed before answering. "To the Department of Mysteries, I believe." He eyes his student as if trying to read something of him. "Why do you ask, Harry?"

Harry visibly gulped. "I… hum… I think I've seen that door before. In a dream I've been having lately."

"A dream?" Mia inquired. "You mean a nightmare? Harry, you could have told us…"

He shook his head. "No, it wasn't a nightmare. Just an odd dream. I thought it didn't mean anything – sometimes I dream of flying socks and I'm sure it doesn't mean a thing."

"And how often do you have that dream?" Dumbledore inquired.

Harry shrugged. "I dunno. A month? It wasn't long after we came back from Santa Lucia that it started. At least as far as I remember. I see the door but when I'm about to reach it, I wake up… But is there something bad in that department?"

"We wouldn't be able to tell you, Harry," Sirius told him and Dumbledore still looked at Harry thoughtfully. "It's the Department of _Mysteries_. You'd have to ask an unspeakable and I doubt even one would tell you anything. Names are very literal in this place."

The younger boy's face fell in disappointment until Mia placed her hand softly on his shoulder. "Well, why don't we just worry about your audience for now and think of that later?"

He sighed and nodded. "Yeah. I guess I should do that."

---

Fudge's office was certainly made in his owner's image: it was large, ridiculously decorated and filled with all sorts of ugly, useless objects. The chairs Sirius, Mia and Harry were sitting on, though pompous, were ridiculously uncomfortable, which, along with Fudge's lack of cordiality towards them, made the air in the office so heavy you could practically cut it with a knife.

Harry couldn't help tapping his fingers on his knee and look down as the minister sat behind the desk, reciting a bunch of formalities and the charges for Percy Weasley, who sat in a corner of the room, to take note of. Amelia Bones sat on a chair by the minister's side and, though she'd initially been named questioner and judge, Fudge had apparently taken over the first part of the job, though – Harry suspected due to some sort of rule he couldn't quite cross – the power to decide Harry's fate still remained with Madam Bones.

"Are you Harry James Potter?" Fudge asked, glaring at Harry over the parchment he'd been reading.

"Yes," Harry said, feeling his throat dry.

"You've conjured a Patronus on the afternoon of the twenty-sixth of August?"

"Yes," said Harry, "but -"

"Knowing that you are not permitted to use magic outside school while you are under the age of seventeen?"

"Yes, but -"

"Cornelius…" Dumbledore started.

"Knowing that you were in an area full of Muggles?" Fudge insisted, ignoring the headmaster.

"Yes! But I only used it because of the Dementors!" he said loudly, before anyone could interrupt him again.

"Dementors?" said Madam Bones after a moment of complete silence, her perfectly drawn eyebrows rising. "What do you mean, Mr. Potter?"

"I mean there were at least eight Dementors surrounding me and my friends! They were getting too close and we couldn't run. I had to do something."

"Ah," Fudge said, smirking unpleasantly from his seat. "Yes. Yes, I thought we'd be hearing something like this."

"Dementors in the centre of London?" Madam Bones said, in a tone of great surprise. "I don't understand -"

"Don't you, Amelia?" Fudge asked, still smirking. "Let me explain. He's been thinking it through and decided Dementors would make a very nice little cover story, very nice indeed. Muggles can't see Dementors, can they, boy? Highly convenient, highly convenient… so it's just your word and no witnesses…"

"No witnesses? His friends were all there!" Sirius remarked, glaring at the minister. "We saw them too. Who do you think that managed to send them all away? If you need all the witnesses here, just let me go fetch them – we'll make a bloody party if you need."

"Mr. Black, please. I believe we've understood your point," Madam Bones told him with a look of disapproval, before turning to harry. "Can you tell us everything that happened, Mr. Potter?"

Harry nodded and proceeded to narrate what had happened. He made sure to change a few parts, mostly the ones that involved the order to avoid exposing it. Madam Bones didn't interrupt him a single time and just nodded every few seconds.

"So, you casted the Patronus charm so…" she took a moment to think, "your adopted sister, Isabelle Black, and a friend, Ginevra Weasley, could go ask for help?" Bones asked in the end, trying to get the picture.

"Yes," Harry confirmed. "We knew Sirius and aunt Mia were nearby, so they went to call for them."

The woman nodded before turning to his godparents. "And when you came to help them did you see the Dementors?"

"Yes," Mia told her immediately. "I didn't count how many there were but they were surrounding them. Harry's Patronus was already fading when we got there."

Bonnes nodded again. "The Patronus…" she mumbled turning to Harry. "Mr. Potter, you are a fourth year. The Patronus charm if far ahead of you. I'm sure I am not the only person wondering how you have succeeded to produce a corporeal Patronus…"

Before he could explain, Mia placed a hand on his arm, silently telling him she'd do it – he'd done enough explaining for a whole month. "Remus Lupin, our friend and Harry's former teacher, taught him the Patronus charm in his third year, when Dementors were positioned right outside of Hogwarts, because they had a very strong effect on him. I believe there's no law against teaching students magic ahead of their year."

"No, of course not. I'll admit this was me being… impressed," Bones confessed, a little embarrassed, before looking at Fudge. "Well, minister, I believe this is enough."

"Enough? You can't have possibly believed this… tale! It is clear they have spent hours training it! The witnesses are his family – certainly not to be believed!"

Madam Bones shot him another disapproving look, very worthy of McGonagall's pride. "Minister, this is a simple case of underage magic. This is Mr. Potter's first strike – he has not even received a warning before. Protocol says…"

"He's flown to Hogwarts in a car when he was twelve!" Fudge protested. "He could have exposed the whole wizarding community! That is enough strike for me!"

Dumbledore stepped in this time. "'A twelve-year-old's foolishness' was what you called it back then, Cornelius. Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley have already been properly punished by the said foolishness in my school and by their parents as well. Two eyewitnesses have confirmed the Dementors were, indeed, threatening Mr. Potter and pensieve memories could easily confirm it, not to mention his friends – this was a case of self-defence."

"He should have waited for adults to come," Fudge insisted.

"There was no time!" Harry shouted.

"Watch your tone, Potter," the minister told him, eyeing him with disdain. "You could have expos…"

Dumbledore interrupted him. "Cornelius, you certainly can't ask a fifteen-year-old boy to sacrifice his soul to a Dementor in order to follow the law and protect our secrecy – especially when there are obiviators to erase those memories from muggles. Like Madam Bones was saying, protocol in a case of underage magic is to give the underage wizard a warning and to let him go, which, in a case of self-defence wouldn't even apply, as it shouldn't be considered an offence at all."

"So, you just want us to let him go? That boy is a menace! Spreading lies about You-Know-Who's alleged return to get the world's…"

Harry stood up, looking angrily at the minister. "Those aren't lies! I saw it! I wish I hadn't, but I did!"

"…serious emotional issues," Fudge kept saying. "He's a walking bomb. Merlin knows what he might pull one of these days."

"I'd shut up now if I were you, Fudge," Sirius warned him through his teeth, just as Mia was pulling Harry onto his chair and trying to calm him down.

"_Enough!"_ Madam Bones shouted, making everyone in the room cease talking. "That will be enough. Mr. Potter is not being judged for what he has or hasn't said concerning he-who-must-not-be-named, so I suggest we leave that matter out of the discussion," she said before turning to Fudge, clearly not happy with his attitude. "Minister, I still am the head of the Law Enforcement Department and it still is up to _me_ to set the verdict."

Fudge coughed. "Bones, I think…"

"_This said_," Madam Bones continued, ignoring the minister's intervention, "I'll arrange for an inquiry to be made on the reason behind more than half a dozen Dementors being in the centre of Muggle London without the ministry's knowledge. As for you, Mr. Potter, this was clearly a case of self-defence, so you are cleared of all charges. You may go."

Relief rushed over Sirius, Mia and Harry at the same time. They couldn't be more thankful for Amelia Bones's intervention, as Fudge hadn't seemed so inclined to clear Harry of the charges at all.

For a moment, all of them were unsure if they should leave the room or wait for something there but when they glanced at Dumbledore and saw him signalling to the door, they couldn't leave the room fast enough.

Amelia Bones left the office right after them and quickly said goodbye to Dumbledore, after congratulating Harry for the Patronus one more time. Fudge hadn't said a single word or moved from his chair ever since Bones had dictated Harry's verdict and now remained shut in his office, along with Percy.

Dumbledore was also quick to excuse himself after they reached the ministry's atrium, but not before giving them a warning. "You have seen Cornelius today – he was very set to banish Harry from the wizarding society. His refusal to believe Voldemort is growing into dangerous proportions. So, Harry, be careful."

Harry then wasn't sure if he'd become more terrified of what Fudge could do or more enlightened because now he had a little notion of how far the minister was willing to go. One thing he was sure of – whatever he did, he needed to be discrete.

"You know Fudge will have to get past us if he wants to mess with you this way again, don't you?" Sirius asked him just seconds after the headmaster had left.

"I know," Harry said with a sigh. "And thanks. I think this audience would have been a lot more difficult if you hadn't been here."

Mia gave him a smile and put one arm around his shoulders. "You don't need to thank us for that. We wouldn't have it any other way," she told him as she walked him to one of the lit fireplaces in the atrium. "Now, I'm assuming you'll want to go to the Burrow and join your friends there. I guess you deserve a break after all."

---

Sirius and Mia made it back home a few minutes later and relieved Lulu from her babysitting duties and, after giving her a quick briefing on the events that surrounded the audience, they were left alone at home with their youngest son.

On the segment of floor that was in front of the sofa there seemed to be a sea of stuffed animals, in the middle of which little Alex sat happily banging a couple of stuffed toys together. He dropped them when he saw his parents approaching and squealed, pointing at them.

"I don't remember him having this much stuffed toys," Sirius said as sat on the sofa with an eyebrow rose.

Mia chuckled and walked closer to the baby, picking him up from the floor. Alex giggled as his mother lifted him, bringing one of this stuffed toys with him, a black dog that had always been his favourite. Mia kissed the little boy's cheek softly before she sat by Sirius's side, passing him the baby so he was sitting on his father's lap. It still felt unbelievable that just in the day before he'd turned six months old – part of her felt like he'd just been born a week ago.

"So, you're six months old. Can you talk already, mate?" Sirius asked the baby, who looked at him with a tiny frown and offered him the stuffed dog in replacement. Sirius accepted it with a chuckle and turned to Mia. "I'll take that as a 'no'."

His wife chuckled. "He probably wouldn't have much to say yet, anyway."

"Of course he would – something in the lines of 'my mom and dad are awesome'," Sirius told her as he gave the stuffed dog back to his son. "We're pretty great parents, aren't we? Compared to the ones we had at our kid's ages. We actually take care of our kids."

Mia smiled. "Yeah, I guess we are great parents that way."

**A/N: I managed to update earlier this time (hopefully soon I'll be able do it in a regular basis)! Thank God! I hope you liked this - it was quite a ride writing it (and, once again, I've been slacking at school)... Feedback is welcome. Review!**


	43. Hogwarts Again

In Sirius's opinion, the time to return to Hogwarts and for him and Mia to go back to work had come too soon. It wasn't that he didn't like the idea of starting his new job there as the Quidditch coach but he knew he'd miss having Mia to himself all day long like he'd had in the previous year. Even though he had a rather light schedule and she'd merely be working mornings, it felt sort of strange. _Well, at least we work at the same place,_ he thought. It could definitely be worse.

In fact, knowing he and Mia would be back at Hogwarts in a regular basis from that day on, made him feel rather nostalgic – it was like they were going right back to the beginning… this time with kids on a tow.

When he felt his wife stirring by his side on the bed and preparing to get up, he reached for her and pulled her back to him. "You're not going anywhere." He informed her, wrapping his arms around her.

"I have to," she moaned, resting her head in his chest. "The Hogwarts Express leaves at eleven and you know it's always a mess before the kids have to leave. I have to go make sure the mess doesn't turn into a catastrophe. And don't forget that the Weasleys are here – it wouldn't be nice to sleep late."

_Right_, he thought. He'd nearly forgotten that all the Weasleys, except for Bill, Charlie and, obviously, Percy, had stayed the night at Grimmauld Place so they could get to King's Cross train station more easily.

"It's still…" he glanced at the clock on his bedside table to check what time it was "…seven in the morning. I doubt anyone will be awake this early to cause anything similar to a catastrophe or to be offended because the host is still asleep, which, by the way, you know very well none of the Weasleys would mind in the slightest – they're practically family. Besides, we keep Kreacher around for some reason, don't we? Let him handle the house – that's what he's here for."

"Alex…"

"… never wakes up before eight," he finished for her. "And, like I said, Kreacher's here for something."

She sighed. "I just want to be sure…" But she couldn't finish what she was about to say as her husband's lips crashed on hers. In fact, a second or two later, she could barely remember why exactly she'd wanted to get up at all. He truly made her stop thinking every time those lips touched hers.

He smiled in the inside as soon as he felt her responding to the kiss – yep, that had been definitely a good idea. His right hand cupped her cheek as their lips moved together. At some point, they switched positions and he was trapping her behind him before any thought of leaving the bed might cross her mind.

"Hum, you were saying…" he murmured against her lips, supporting his weight on his elbows.

"Never mind," she replied, looking intently in his eyes and giving him a smile. "I think I can live with another hour here in bed."

Sirius grinned. "I thought you might say that."

"It really isn't fair you kissing me out of the blue when I'm trying to leave," she pointed out. "You know I can't resist it."

"Oh, don't I know?" he said, still smiling down at her before pressing a kiss to her forehead and rolling off her to his own side of the bed, confident she wouldn't leave now. "Haven't you ever heard that all is fair in love and war?"

She chuckled. "I guess I have." Then, for a moment or two, she just lied there on her side, looking into his eyes.

"You're nervous," he said, rubbing her cheek with his thumb. He could see it in her eyes- they couldn't hide a thing from him. "Why? Is it a about going back to teaching? I don't know about your classes but I can tell you that, back when we were students, you were the only person I was able to do History of Magics assignments with and not get bored to death. You actually made it sound interesting when you explained things."

Mia smiled. "That's something, considering Remus had to keep stabbing you with his elbow to keep you awake during classes. But it's not my teaching skills that I'm worried about – it's… remember when Dumbledore asked you to be the Quidditch Coach? He mentioned something about the ministry taking liberties filling the free positions at Hogwarts."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Hum… yeah, now that you mention it, I remember that. Do you think they're trying to, well, mark territory? Or spy?"

"Maybe," she said. "I'm not sure. But it doesn't sound well. Going back to Hogwarts is going to be tough on itself to Harry because most of his classmates have been reading the trash that the Daily Prophet has been publishing – and probably believing it. And I just know it will be tough on Izzy too: last time Harry's name was in the mud, back in his second year with the chamber thing, she was so upset that she had a massive row with Ginny just because she thought Ginny believed in the stuff they were saying. They didn't speak with each other for months. Of course, when she found out that Ginny had been possessed by Voldemort, Izzy felt terrible and they made amends but still… she was miserable all that time. So, this idea of the ministry having someone inside the school plotting Merlin-knows-what…"

"Well, we'll be there as well," Sirius told her. "If anything, we'll do all we can to make it easier on the kids. But let's not think of it, Mia – it's pointless now that we don't know a thing."

She sighed. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"Then stop worrying, woman," Sirius told her in a mock-firm tone before brushing a strand of hair from her face. "You worry way too much."

"I know I do… but I just can't help it," Mia told him.

"Then how about we change the subject?" he suggested, making her smile at him. "Did you notice that tonight it will be exactly twenty-four years since we've met?"

Mia was amazed for a moment. "Twenty-four years," she mumbled.

"Seems like a lifetime, doesn't it?" he asked. _A lifetime with a thirteen-year-long hole in the middle of it_, he added in his mind. It sounded so unfair they'd been robbed more than half the time they'd known each other…

"It sort of makes me feel old," Mia confessed.

He chuckled. "We were eleven back when we met, Mia. People older than us have known each other for less time. And tonight we're going to be at the same sort of banquet where we've met, watching kids being sorted from the opposite side of the staff table. How strange is that?"

She smiled. "I wouldn't call it strange – ironic, maybe. Twenty-four years. You were the first person who talked to me after I was sorted… maybe it was a sign."

"Maybe," he said, rolling on top of her again and stranding her under him. Mia chuckled as he leaned down again to kiss her lips one more time before making his way to her chin and then to her neck. "Maybe _this_ is a sign we should start celebrating this date early," Sirius murmured against her skin before looking up at her. "Should we follow the signs?"

She sighed, feeling his lips kissing her neck again. "We've done well enough following them before," Mia whispered as his lips made their way back to her face. "Make love to me."

He grinned down at her. "Oh, yes, I will."

She was the one to capture his mouth with her own before he started tugging her thin nightshirt off in order to feel her skin. The kisses grew deeper, longer… warmer. And before they knew it, they were sinking… sinking down to their own happy place.

---

Instead of one more hour in bed, they'd spent nearly two, Mia noticed later, to her own disbelief. It was just incredible how time seemed to stop whenever she and Sirius were together that way…

"I'll take that as a compliment," Sirius told her when Mia voiced her thoughts as she got dressed after a shower that had taken longer than expected, once again, his fault for having joined her there. "You know, maybe one of these days maybe we'll actually be able to stop time. We may just have to try harder."

She raised an eyebrow at him, finishing buttoning her shirt. "You do realize it is impossible to stop time that way, right? You just don't get tired of trying to find excuses to get laid – horndog."

"Aw, that's such an ugly label," he told her in a mock-hurt tone. "'Madly in love with my wife' sounds more fitting."

Mia chuckled. "And they say marriage makes things boring," she mumbled to herself. "Well, we'd better leave this room – I can only imagine the mess outside." One could never know what was going on with Harry, Izzy and four Weasley kids, Fred and George most certainly among them, unleashed – hopefully, Hermione, Molly and Arthur were putting some sense in them.

"Well, the house is still standing," Sirius told her. "That has to be a good sign."

"Yeah, at least we can say that," Mia agreed as the two of them, now fully dressed, made their way to the door.

They could feel the madness as soon as she stepped outside the room… even hear it: Molly angrily yelling someone downstairs, Hermione one floor below them scolding Harry for not checking if he'd packed everything until the last minute as he asked Ron to go look for his Firebolt, which, Mia knew, was down at the kitchen, and, finally, they could also hear Izzy turning her room upside down, searching for something.

"Mom!" they heard their daughter calling from her room.

_Yeah, it really is the first of September_, she thought as she turned to Sirius. "Can you…?"

"Yes, I'll take care of Alex – you go ahead and save the world," he told her in an amused tone before she could even ask him anything.

Mia smiled and planted a kiss on his cheek as a way of thanking him before she made her way down the stairs, making Sirius chuckle.

Truth was he loved the mess that came along with the first of September. He loved it mostly because, despite the fight against time to find this and that and the shouting from room to room, it showed warmness and, well, family life, which was something he'd never seen in that house back when he lived there with his parents. It was ironic how the house he'd hated so much in the past had turned into one of his favourite places in the world.

He entered his youngest son's room with a grin on his face and found the baby already awake and sitting up in his cot. Alex gave his father a little frown as soon as he laid eyes on him, as if knowing that the long wait for someone to come and take him out of his little cage was Sirius's fault. _It kind of is, _Sirius thought for a moment. If he hadn't put such an effort in convincing his wife to ignore the madness outside and… have a little fun with him, she might have come to get the baby earlier.

"I know, know," he told his son. "It's my fault you had to stay there, being bored for longer than usual. But Daddy wants Mummy just for himself every once in a while, okay? Maybe one of these days I'll convince her to give you a little brother or sister to keep you entertained, alright?" Sirius ruffled the baby's hair and pout didn't last much longer as Alex let out a squeal and raised his arms up at him, telling him in his own baby language that he wanted to be picked up.

Sirius grinned at the little boy and lifted him to his arms. "So, you really want a brother or a sister, don't you? Any chance you'll tell that to Mummy?"

Alex replied with some unintelligible baby talk and promptly rested his head against his father's shoulder.

He chuckled and rubbed his son's back. "We can always hope." He carried the baby out of the room and down the stairs in direction to the kitchen, where he found Molly still scolding Fred and George as Arthur sat by the table, reading the newspaper.

"…you could have caused your sister a serious injury!" Molly was telling them, shooting daggers with her eyes.

"We've said we're sorry, Mom," one of them, Sirius wasn't really sure if it was Fred or George at the moment, said. "But it's not like Ginny actually did get hurt or anything…"

Molly narrowed her eyes at them and kicked Arthur's chair so he'd back her up. He coughed before saying anything, showing he'd stopped paying attention a while ago. "Now, boys… hum, listen to your mother. What you did was… very bad."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, not really getting what that was all about. "What happened?" he finally asked as Alex started to squirm in his arms.

All four redheads turned to him at the same time but Molly was the only one to actually speak. "Oh, Sirius, there you are. Well, these two," she glanced at the twins to glare at them, "decided to make their trunks fly down the stairs just to show they can do magic outside school now and ended up knocking Ginny down two flights of stairs."

"Oh, is she okay?" he asked, a little alarmed.

"Yes, fortunately. But she might not have been," Molly told Sirius as she made his way to him, in order to coo the baby. "And how is this little angel this morning?"

Pleased with Molly's attention, Alex giggled and reached out for Molly with his little arms. Sirius could have called the baby a little traitor for abandoning his dad as he passed him to Molly. But then again, the kid was way too young to weight those facts.

The following hour and a half was rather frantic but, between himself, Mia, Molly and Arthur, the crises were averted and, by quarter past ten, they were just waiting for the guard Mad-Eye had arranged to escort them to King's Cross to arrive, which Sirius found incredibly pointless as they'd be apparating there.

Kingsley was the first one arrive, followed by Tonks, who, as always, carried a good moon and innate clumsiness that made her trip on the coat-hanger by the door and then Remus. Mad-Eye, on the other hand, remained outside making sure they weren't watched.

As the wards of the house had been reinforced ever since Voldemort's return, they couldn't apparate in and out of it, so they had to leave the house and walk into a deserted alley a block or so away before side-along apparating with the kids into platform 9 ¾.

They left the house in groups of four a few minutes apart from each other, trying not to call too much attention on themselves and it took them all a total of ten minutes to reach the alley and apparate into the train station. It was as packed as ever, with groups of students reuniting, parents leading their kids into the train and small first years not sure of what to do. Moody, Kingsley and Tonks took care of taking the luggage to the train while the others said their goodbyes.

"I'll miss you terribly, Izzybel," Sirius told his daughter jokingly as he gave her a hug by the train's entrance, a few minutes before it was to leave.

"We'll, see each other tonight at the banquet, Daddy," Izzy told him with a chuckle, pulling away. "And probably every day as well."

He faked a disappointed look. "Oh right – I guess I'd forgotten. A bloke can't just send his kids to school and hope not to lay eyes on them until Christmas. No fair."

"Try the other way around," she said him, matching his look. "A person can't just go to school and not see her parents until Christmas. Now I have to be more careful when spending all day long snogging in broom closets so you and Mom won't walk out on me."

"Hey!" he said, narrowing his eyes. The prospect of his daughter _ever_ dating was something that he wouldn't welcome so easily in his mind. "Don't even think of it."

She smiled defiantly in a way that would make anyone doubt what she was about to say. "Of _course_ not. Well, I'll just go say goodbye to Alex – you'd better bring him to Hogwarts every once in a while, by the way." Then, she reached for her father's face to kiss his cheek. "See you later."

He sighed as he watched his daughter leave. She was growing up fast and he just couldn't bring himself to like that idea… she was supposed to be his little girl, after all.

"A little protective, aren't you?" Remus asked his friend as he approached him and stood by his side. "I couldn't help hearing the conversation."

Sirius groaned, watching Izzy cooing her baby brother in the stroller. "Why can't they just stay little forever?"

"Aren't they usually a handful when they're little?" Remus replied.

He shrugged. "Sort of. But it's worth it. And at least they don't think of dating, them. You'll know when you have one of your own."

Remus sighed. "We both know that's not going to happen."

Sirius turned his face to his old friend. "The hell it won't, Moony. You do realize I won't rest until I find you a girl, right?" He looked around the platform, searching for a woman to prove his point. "Like that one," Sirius told him, nodding at a busty brunette sitting on a bench.

The werewolf raised an eyebrow. "That one is sitting right by a guy and has a couple of children with her. I'd say she's taken."

"I dunno. The guy looks pretty old – maybe he's her father," Sirius pointed out.

"Forget it."

"Fine." He looked around the platform again and found another woman with long, straight black hair and her back turned to them. She did look nice from behind… not that he really admired anyone's behind but his wife's. He was doing a favour to his oldest mate, after all. "Maybe that one, then."

Remus huffed – he knew Sirius wasn't about to let it go. "She's …hum," he tried to find some sort of obvious flaw on her that would convince Sirius to leave him alone. That was, until he finally saw her face and knew immediately there was just no way in a million years he'd even consider her. "Well, _she_ is Barbara Lasher."

"Barbara La… Wait, Babs?" Sirius asked in surprise, staring at the woman. That was unmistakably Barbara Lasher, their certainly not beloved Slytherin classmate, wearing a very-expensive looking black muggle pantsuit, probably bought with her third or fourth husband's money, and looking just as cold and mean spirited as she always had. How hadn't he noticed it before? He should have smelled the venom in the air as soon as he'd stepped into the platform. "What is she doing here? Don't tell me she's seeing her kid off – the poor child…"

"I don't see any other reason for her to be here," Remus pointed out.

"Let's make sure we stay away from that part of the platform just in case," Sirius suggested. "Right, so where was I? … oh, yeah, you're off the hook with Babs – no way in hell I'd want her having Christmas dinner at my place as your plus-one. I guess we can leave the girl-hunting for another day – she's ruined my inspiration."

Remus rolled his eyes. "How about to never?"

"Not a chance, Moony," Sirius replied with a grin.

---

After the Hogwarts Express left, Sirius and Mia made their way to Lulu's place in order to drop Alex there with her and Gabriel and the apparated into Hogsmeade, from where they walked to the castle.

"This place never gets old," Sirius said with a sigh, looking at the castle as they approached.

Mia smiled – she knew he Hogwarts just as much as she did – that had been the place where they'd found home back when their family lives were not so good. "It really doesn't. All the stuff that we lived here…"

"Speaking of which," Sirius said, remembering Barbara's sighting back in the train station, "our beloved Barbara Lasher was at the train station earlier."

Mia stopped walking and raised an eyebrow at her husband. "Barbara Lasher? You mean that… that little bitchy gold-digger from Slytherin?"

He grinned at the way she'd described her. "The one and only. Moony saw her himself – I accidentally tried to hook him up with her."

She made a face as they resumed walking to the castle. "Accidentally?"

"I didn't see her face at first. Obviously she wouldn't be my pick for his girlfriend," he explained quickly. "And then all I wanted was to get off the train station without running on her – I might feel too compelled to hex her if she was horrible to you… again."

Mia chuckled. "Remember the hives?"

He grinned. "How could I possibly forget? One of my masterpieces."

They entered the castle still smiling seconds later only to see Dumbledore and McGonagall in the Great Hall talking to a short, plump woman dressed in a horrible green tweed outfit with pink frills all over it. All together, she looked similar to a toad.

"Ah, Sirius, Amelia," Dumbledore said in his usual welcoming tone. "Let me introduce you to our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge." At the same time he voiced the woman's name, the headmaster also gave them a warning look, which they understood – she worked for the Ministry. They'd seen her name in several articles of the Daily Prophet against Harry and Dumbledore. "Professor Umbridge, these are Sirius and Amelia Black, our Quidditch Coach and History of Magic teacher."

The woman gave them a smile that was so fake and forced, Sirius wondered if she was in pain as she did it. "How nice to meet you," she said in high, girlish voice whose sound could be classified as poisoned honey. "I am sure it will be a pleasure working with you two."

"I think exactly the same," Mia replied, forcing a smile back – better not show her enemy she thought of her as an enemy. "Well, we'd love to stay here and chat but there are so many things to do before the students arrive. If you don't mind, we'll just get going."

"Not at all," Umbrige said immediately.

Mia nodded. "Professors," she said with, giving Dumbledore and McGonagall a nod before reaching for Sirius's arm and leaving with him. They waited until they were at least a floor above the others and several hallways away before saying anything about Umbridge.

"So that's the bitch who's called you cold and neglectful in that article," Sirius said though his teeth. "Dolores Umbridge."

"Apparently," Mia replied. "Hopefully, she's just talk… or else this is worse than I thought."

He sighed. "I have a feeling it won't be long before we figure it out."

**A/N: Fifth year starts and Umbridge appears. The countdown for the battle of the Department of Mysteries has officially started... Hope you liked the chapter - especially the all-Sirius/Mia first part. Hoping for some feedback. Review!**


	44. Tension Rising

After Umbridge's very Ministry-oriented speech during the beginning of the year banquet, it had become clear that she was a spy to anyone who'd suspected it. _Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected and prune practices that ought to be... prohibited, _she had said, to everyone's confusion. How many different things could that mean?

The first day of classes started early and, for those who still hadn't run into Umbridge that day, namely Mia, it was going rather well. Her first class, that had coincidently been with Izzy, had gone great with the students in general welcoming her back gladly and some, mostly the girls, asking endless questions about her baby, which couldn't help making her and the proud big sister in the room smile.

"So, what do you have next, girls?" Mia asked her daughter as she and Ginny finished packing their books in their bags after her class.

"A free period, I think," Izzy told her, before checking the schedule McGinagall had given her that morning. "Yeah, free period. What on Earth are we going to do with a free period in the first day of classes? We don't even have homework."

"Oh, sweetheart, if lack of homework is the problem, I'm sure I can help," Mia offered in an amused tone.

Izzy narrowed her eyes at her mother. "You know what I mean, Mom. I'm _not_ asking for homework."

Mia faked a disappointed sigh. "Well, I guess then you might be interested in knowing that your father's first flying lesson starts in a few minutes, at the courtyard by the divination tower."

"Really? This soon?" Ginny asked in surprise. "It's the first day of classes. We had a couple of weeks before we started."

"He wants to see how much those kids know before anything," Mia explained quickly. "And I have a feeling he might like a little support in his first class – he was a little jittery this morning before we came to the school. I'd do it myself but a half-day schedule doesn't give a person many breaks."

"Oh, we can't miss it!" Izzy said. "Dad teaching first years how to fly must be something worth seeing."

Her mother smiled – she'd had a feeling Izzy would say that. "Well, then wish him good luck for me, would you? And make sure you don't get too caught up with it and end up late for your next class."

"It's Potions," Ginny pointed out, getting hold of her bag to leave. "We'd be mad if we got there a minute late – Snape gives the worst detentions. Especially if Izzy or Harry are the ones to step a toe over of the line."

Mia recognized Ginny had a point there but chose not to say anything on that matter. She believed that remaining as neutral as possible between Sirius and Snape was the best choice now that she had to work with both, though she was naturally biased towards her own husband's side. Just that morning they'd run into each other and brawled like twelve-year-olds – only thing missing was insulting each other's mothers. "Well, just keep that in mind. Hurry if you want to catch him before the class starts."

"Yeah, we'll see you later, Mom. Bye," Izzy said.

"Bye, honey," Mia said before they walked out of the room.

Izzy and Ginny hurried down the corridor just as a group of first-year Slytherins were passing, probably trying to figure out where they were supposed to have their next class. The sun was shining outside when they left the castle a couple of minutes later – the last weeks of summer showing themselves.

Sirius wasn't hard to find, inspecting with a grin what Izzy assumed to be his new broomstick and standing by two lines of about ten other broomsticks each lying neatly on the floor. He didn't notice them approach until they were barely a yard away, so entranced he was in the new broomstick.

He raised an eyebrow them when he saw them. "And what are you two doing here, Misses Black and Weasley? Don't you have classes or something? Should I give you detention for skiving?"

Izzy chuckled – her father giving detention to them. Unlikely. "Actually, we have a free period and just thought we couldn't miss watching your first class." Then she faked a hurt expression. "Of course, if you want us gone…"

"Hey, the mock-hurt expression thing is mine," Sirius joked, raising his eyebrow further.

"Well, I'm your daughter," she replied. "I probably got it for you so I have the right to use it too."

He chuckled. "Hum, I don't know… But I'll let you get away with it this once."

Ginny coughed, staring intently at his broomstick. "I'm sorry, is that… is that the new Nimbus Arrow, chaser edition?"

Sirius grinned. "Well, yes it is. You have a nice eye for racing brooms, Ginny," he said, impressed.

"Are you kidding me? I've been dreaming of that broom ever since it was publicized. That line is the first with specific models for each quidditch position," she said before looking up at him, confused. "It was just launched for public sale this morning. How come you have it already?"

"Well, I did get up really early today and bribed the store-owner into letting me buy it before it was open for business," he pointed out with a grin. "It's a beauty, isn't it? Mia calls it a death trap but that's just her non-quidditch appreciator soul talking."

"It looks fast," Izzy said, getting a better look of it. "Are you going to use it today?"

Sirius shrugged. "Depends on how those kids handle themselves today. Speaking of whom…" he turned to the bunch of first years by the castle's entrance. "There they are – is it me or first years get smaller every year?"

"They do, don't they?" Izzy agreed. "At this rate, Alex will only reach my waist by the time he's supposed to come here."

Sirius frowned. "Merlin, don't joke about that. That kid will be tall and handsome like his Dad."

"And as awfully confident too, apparently," Ginny added with a chuckle.

"What can I say? Confidence runs in our blood," he replied, grinning. "You girls go find a place to sit. I've got to get started with the kids."

They wished him good luck one last time before moving to a stone bench a few yards away to watch.

The group of first years was all Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Those kids couldn't act more different from each other: some looked incredibly confident with the class, others were uninterested, others looked rather clueless and, finally, more than a quarter of them looked terrified, staring at the broomsticks as if they were axes that would come to life and chop off their heads.

"Ah, first flying lesson," a familiar voice said from their side. "The memories it brings…"

"Too bad we didn't have such a cool instructor," another voice, just as familiar as the other one, added.

Ginny and Izzy turned to their heads to them, only to see Fred and George standing by the bench.

"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked them.

"Gin-Gin," Fred started.

"Don't call me that!"

He ignored her. "Gin-Gin, you can probably imagine that with three OWLs each, our NEWT level schedule is very light," Fred said.

George nodded in agreement. "We were planning to invest these two free hours in our prank-business but then we saw the notice of the first-year's flying lesson back on the common room's board and we just knew we could miss it… especially with a Marauder teaching."

"So, scoot over and make space for us," Fred said.

The girls moved, trying to fit four people on the bench, which revealed itself a rather hard task. "Ah, George, move your arse back to that side – Ginny's practically falling out and I'm squeezing here," Izzy said, trying to move, unwillingly pressed against him like they were canned sardines.

"Well, we're not so great back here either," George replied, in the same situation.

"Just let me enlarge this thing," Fred said, pointing his wand at the bench. "Everyone stay still unless you want your arse to grow to the size of the moon!" He muttured a spell and, moments later, the bench stretched about two yards, enabling them to finally feel comfortable.

Eventually, they were able to look again at the group of first years being taught by Sirius, who already had their broomsticks in hand and were preparing to get on them. As soon as one of the girls get on hers, the broomstick started to float her over the floor until she was about three feet under the ground and rotated so the poor girl was hanging upside down from it.

"Ah, they still haven't replaced that one," Fred said with a snort.

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.

"Didn't anyone end up in the air too soon or upside down in your class?" he asked.

Izzy nodded. "Colin did."

"Well, it happens every year," George explained. "Something is wrong with that broom and there's always a poor sod getting the scare of their short lives. Pretty great to see, though."

They resumed watching as Sirius helped the hysterical girl down to the ground without freaking out and then tapping his wand on the broom repeatedly, as if trying to fix it. Izzy smiled proudly at her father – he was a good teacher. In fact, she wished he'd been the one to teach her how to fly instead of Lulu, not that she'd been that bad. She had a feeling it might have been something nice. But he hadn't been able to be there due to his wrong imprisonment and that was something she'd always feel sad for.

Suddenly, she noticed someone else watching from one of the first floor windows. She recognized Umbridge, despite the horrible pink outfit that made her look more like a pig than anything else. Umbridge was watching her father's class, as if plotting something. And Izzy couldn't help feeling nervous about it.

---

Hours later, Mia finished her fourth and last class of the day, little before one in the afternoon, and retired to her office in order to arrange her things before going to lunch. But she wasn't left alone for long. Little over a minute after she'd entered her office, a fake cough came from the doorway, making her look up at it to see Umbridge standing there.

"Professor Umbridge," Mia said, trying to keep an even voice, despite the hatred she cultivated for the woman. "How can I help you?"

Umbridge stepped into the room with a fake smile covering her face, closing the door behind her and making her way to one of the chairs in front of Mia's desk. "Professor Black, if you could spare me a few minutes to talk, I was hoping we could have a chance to get to know each other – yesterday we had such little time to talk. I think it's important to get to know my colleagues."

"The first of September is always a busy day," she replied as she absently closed the books she'd used earlier when preparing her classes.

"Yes, it seems it is," Umbridge agreed, sitting down. "I came here to your quarters right after the banquet last night but apparently you were gone. I wasn't aware that you didn't live in the castle and had such an… irregular schedule until Professor Dumbledore informed me this morning."

Deep down, Mia felt that her last sentence had a slight tone of accusation in it but she didn't let it show in her reply, which was very straight to the point. "Yes. He's probably told you that I have an infant son back home – the school rules allow partial schedules for Professors with families at home, so I wouldn't call it _irregular_."

"Of course, of course," Umbridge said immediately, faking regret. "I've made an unfortunate choice of words. I hope you won't take it as an offense, Amelia. I can call you Amelia, can't I?"

She nearly bit her inner lip but simply nodded. _Don't let her know you see her as an enemy, _Mia told herself.

"So, _Amelia_, you took over this job three years ago, right?"

"Yes, I have," Mia said. "From Professor Binns. Dumbledore thought it was time for a replacement."

"But you were a healer back then, weren't you?" Umbridge asked. "I'm apologize for my curiosity but I couldn't help asking around. I was simply wondering why Dumbledore would choose a healer to teach History of Magic. The subjects don't seem alike at all."

It was becoming harder and harder to pretend she was alright with the whole questioning, but Mia kept making an effort. "I always had top grades at the subject when I was a student – Dumbledore knew I was good at it and that I was looking for a change of career."

"Hum, so it had nothing to do with your daughter, Isabelle, I believe and your godson Harry Potter attending the school at that time?" the woman asked, giving Mia another fake smile.

It had, but that's none of your business, Mia thought. She just wanted the woman to leave so she could be in peace. "Of course not," Mia said in a slightly annoyed tone – maybe she'd get a hint and leave.

"I'm sorry if this sounds like an interview but I believe knowing why a colleague has chosen the teaching career is the first step for a good work relationship," the new teacher said calmly. "Well, let's just change the subject. Life had been hard for you, hasn't it? Losing your parents – Susan and Phillip, such… competent people –, thinking for years the father of your child was a cold-blooded murderer…"

"I _never_ thought that," Mia snapped. This time she hadn't been able to help it at all – she'd touched a nerve. Susan and Phillip Davis were _not_ her parents, but she didn't have to know that. However, accusing of doubting Sirius's innocence was too much. "I knew Sirius since he was eleven, probably knew him better than many people. At any time I'd have bet my life he was innocent."

"Oh, I am _very _sorry if I have offended you, Amelia," Umbridge apologized, not meaning it at all. "It's just that… very few people would have the faith you had in your husband. Some may still have doubts of his innocence…"

_Yeah, and I just bet you're one of them_, Mia thought as she heard that. How she wanted to launch herself at that insufferable woman's throat.

"…especially now with this situation concerning your godson. Such a troubled boy he must be," she continued.

"Harry is as _untroubled_ as any boy under the circumstances that surround him can be," Mia assured her in a tight tone. "Unlike _some people_ have been saying, he's not needy because of his upbringing or anything else for that matter. He grew up with people who loved and cared for him. He's a good boy, not the liar you make him sound like."

"Well, I'm not sure how that explains his behaviour in my class, not even an hour ago," Umbridge told her calmly. "I'm afraid he acted so… insolently that I had to give him detention until the end of the week."

Mia narrowed her eyes. She wondered for a moment if there was steam coming out of her ears because she felt so damn angry she might as well be boiling. She was pretty sure the only teacher Harry would even consider being remotely rude to was Snape. But considering the conversation they'd just had, she wouldn't be admired if Umbridge had said something to set him off. "If he's anything close to troubled, which I doubt, it is because of the way he's being treated lately. As for the detention, I'll speak to Harry about it when I can. Now, _Professor_, if you don't mind, I need to hurry. I'd like to get home before three."

"Of course, of course," Umbridge said, sitting up. She was satisfied enough for having annoyed Mia already. "It was a pleasure talking to you. I look forward to see Mr. Potter in detention starting tomorrow." When Mia finally glared up at her, the woman was gone. "Bitch, Mia muttered under her breath, moments before a pale Harry came in.

"She's told you already, hasn't she?" he was nervously. "I swear I was coming here to tell you about the detention but when I arrived I heard her voice inside. I couldn't help it – she started saying Voldemort being back was a lie, Cedric had been an accident…"

"Harry," Mia said, making him stop talking. "Come in, close the door and sit down."

He nodded and did as she said, not saying a word and letting her be the first one to speak.

His godmother sighed before saying anything. "I've just wasted several minutes of my life talking to that woman. Don't you think I've already realized what a fake she is? Just calm down and tell me what happened."

Harry nodded again. "She came into the class and told us to read our books. _Books_! She's not going to teach us any practical defence and several people started asking her about that. She kept insisting we didn't need any practical because we were kids and nobody would attack us. Then I told her Voldemort would but she kept denying he was back, saying that I was lying… and I kept insisting he was! I may have called her a liar at some point. She got really angry, kicked me out of class to McGonagall's office and gave me detention."

Mia had to purse her lips not to curse Umbridge's existence in front of him. And then the woman had had the _nerve_ to go interrogate her. "What did McGonagall say?"

Harry shrugged. "She didn't seem very angry about the detention itself but she told me to be careful – not to push Umbridge too hard. She thinks she's a spy. Hermione said the same yesterday at the banquet."

"Yeah, that's not so hard to figure out," Mia mumbled with a sigh, leaning against the back of her chair. "If this serves you any comfort, I don't think she likes me either. About the detention, I don't have the power to make it go away, Harry."

He nodded. "That's fine…" He didn't want Umbridge to think he couldn't take her on his own. "I really just wanted you to hear it from me first. Guess I wasn't successful."

She gave her godson a soft smile. "What matters is that you tried, Harry. So, apart from this, how are things going?"

Harry visibly frowned. "Most people think I'm a loony but I guess that's not really news… It gets pretty annoying when there's one of them in my dorm – Seamus Finnegan. His mother didn't want to send him back because of what she'd read in the papers about me. Ron and Neville are with me and Dean's mostly neutral – he said Seamus's mother was being even more protective than usual after his baby sister was born back in July… I dunno, this all feels really weird."

"It will get better," Mia promised him. It had to or else they'd go mad, she thought before getting up. "Now, come on. It's time for lunch. We wouldn't want you to go to your afternoon classes with an empty stomach."

He chuckled and got up, following her out of the office, which she locked after leaving. They hadn't walked for two minutes before Sirius appeared around the corner, coming in their direction.

"Ah, there you are, Mia. I was starting to think you'd made a run on me. And Harry, Ron and Hermione were looking for you," Sirius told them. "What's with the long faces?"

"Not-so-pleasant altercations with Umbridge," Mia said. "She gave Harry detention until the end of the week."

Her husband raised an eyebrow and turned to Harry. "Anything I should be proud of?"

"I called her a liar," Harry said, making his godfather grin.

Sirius grinned and ruffled his godson's hair playfully. "That's my boy." He then looked at his wife again. "And what did she do to you?"

"We talked," Mia told him shortly in a tone that let him know the talk hadn't been such a pleasant thing.

"Well, how about we skip lunch and go home right now? That way you won't have to see her ugly face before tomorrow," Sirius suggested, guessing that was just what she needed.

"That sounds great, actually," Mia accepted before turning to Harry. "Will you be alright, not? You know you can use two-way mirror to contact us about _anything_ while we're gone. I think Izzy has it with her."

Harry nodded. "I know. And thanks. For, you know, not being angry with the detention."

Mia shook her head. "You were just doing what was right. But listen to McGonagall, Harry. Be careful with Umbridge."

"I'll try," he promised.

"And don't refrain yourself from mentioning your dislike for her to Fred and George," Sirius added, his look showing he was plotting something. "Tell them to make sure I can provide them with an alibi for whatever they do."

Harry snorted while Mia elbowed him, more lightly than she usually did. She couldn't really blame him for wanting to Umbridge's head on a stick – she definitely wanted that too…

"Well, I should go look for Ron and Hermione now," Harry said. "See you tomorrow, then?"

They nodded. "Tomorrow," Sirius said before his godson walked away, leaving him alone with Mia. They started walking back to her office, from where there was a secret floo connection made by Dumbledore specifically to their house. "So, how bad was the talk with Umbridge?"

Mia looked at him and sighed. "Really bad. Very passive-agressive. She wanted to know why I'd become a teacher, how I felt about your innocence, Harry… all with little accusations in between the lines. She simply doesn't give a damn about if we know she's on us or not. She makes it hard for anyone not to hate her."

"She was watching my flying class earlier," Sirius told her. "I barely noticed it but Izzy saw her looking the whole time through a window and told me later."

"Oh, how did the class go?" she asked, remembering it.

"Pretty well - a little strange with kids turning upside down and all..." he mumbled. "And, well, there was this ugly pig/toad crossbreed watching."

She sighed as she unlocked her office again and stepped in, followed by Sirius. "Well, I guess it's not that unexpected that she hated us – we're Harry's guardians and she doesn't like him a bit. Logics say she wouldn't like us too. But still, it's bad."

"Going to you and throwing accusations, openly or not… oh, I hope Fred and George get her good – Merlin, I'll give a pound of gold each if they do," Sirius said. And how he wished to be able to witness it…

"Sirius, you have to be careful with her too," Mia warned him with a serious expression on her face. "She's connected to the ministry and Merlin knows she may be dangerous. I don't want anything to happen to you."

He shook his head and reached down for her, kissing her brow. "Nothing will happen to me, Mia. I promise. Now, let's get home, okay?"

She nodded. "I love you. And I love it when you take care of me. Makes me feel better."

Sirius grinned, his thumb rubbing her cheek. "It's my job. Besides, you took care of me before – when I came back from Azkaban. Oh, and I don't think I need to tell you again that I love you too. Just stop worrying about Umbridge – there's two of us and only one of her. Do you really think she can beat us?"

**A/N: Half a day earlier... hopefully now that christmas is coming I'll be able to go back to my every five days posts (pray, because I am too). I hope you liked this one. It is ridiculously large again but I really didn't feel like breaking this chapter in two. Hope you liked it :D Feedback is sooo welcome. Review!**

**Oh, by the way, just wanted to say that after the battle of the Dep. of Mysteries I'll probably start a new volume of this story. It will be pretty much the same as this one, continuing from where I leave this one, but this will help me organizing the mess of notes I have on this story (you'd all go mad if you saw the amount of post-its and scraps of paper I have on my board... I know, sort of obsessive but that's the way I work). And, well, after the battle, no matter what happens to Sirius or doesn't, things will get heavier in this fic.**

**Leave comments on this if you want, saying wether you agree or not. I'm still in the deciding phase, though I'm inclined to go ahead with the two volume thing instead of a really big one.**


	45. Detention

In the afternoon of the following day, Harry's first one in detention, Mia wasn't feeling so calm. Just the idea of him being alone with Umbridge for it made her stomach churn.

"We could talk to Dumbledore," Mia said, as she paced left and right in Grimmauld Place's the living room. "We could ask him to have Harry serve his detention with someone else. Like McGonagall…" She stopped for a moment to think. "Or Snape."

Sirius, who'd been sitting on the sofa watching her pace, gave her a horrified look. "Snape?!" he yelled in disbelief. "Are you mad? Giving the kid on a platter to Snape? You might as well just throw him into a pit full of wolves."

"Better the devil you know, than the devil you don't," Mia told him with a sigh. Unfortunately enough, that was the best she would think of at the moment. "Besides, he cared for Lily. I don't think he'd ever be capable of actually harming her son. Umbridge, on the other, strikes me as bit of a sadist. It seems like she enjoys seeing us all jumpy because of her. Voldemort's out there and the only thing I can worry about at the moment is that woman! Infuriating!"

Sirius didn't say a thing for a few moments, just letting her pace and let the steam out. When he saw the pacing slow down slightly, he took it she was calming down as well and, in a quick movement, he rose slightly from the sofa, wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap unexpectedly as he sat back again.

"Ooch, what was that for?" Mia asked, wrapping one arm around his shoulders to make sure she wouldn't fall down.

"The pacing was making me dizzy," Sirius told her not so truthfully. He actually just felt like doing it. "Besides, you can stop worrying and coming up with mad ideas like detentions with _Snape_. I have a plan."

She frowned. "A plan?"

"Hum, hum."

"And what would that plan be?"

"Well," he started, "I won't go into too much detail but I can tell you this: either she's a sadist or not, Umbridge certainly isn't completely stupid. She knows there are limits the she can't cross, at least not this early in the year and not with Dumbledore in charge. She may think she'll get away with hurting or messing with Harry as long as she thinks we won't notice it or won't care… but if we make it clear to her that we're watching Harry closely, messing with him it may very well jump beyond the limits – she'll never risk being caught, sacked and getting bad publicity for her precious ministry."

"So your plan is to show her we're watching over Harry," Mia concluded. "Why wouldn't she know it already? Why wouldn't she know it after that bloody conversation she made us have just yesterday?"

"'Cause she's a huge cynical cow, that's why," he said naturally. "Because she's one, the woman immediately thinks everyone else is. You say Harry's not lying, that's he's a good kid, she thinks you're protecting yourself from being accused of having raised a paranoid troublemaker. It's as simple as that. We just have to show her wrong. That way, she'll see she has a big wall between herself and Harry."

That made a lot of sense, actually, Mia thought. But it also had its disadvantages. "And we'll become stones in her shoe."

Sirius shrugged. "We already are stones in her shoe, love – anyone affiliated with Harry is. We'll just become really uncomfortable ones."

"She'll try to get us out of the way," Mia warned him. "You don't endure living with stones in your shoes, you get rid of them."

"Let her try," he replied. "Besides, I'd say we're safe for a while, while she outlines a plan to mess with us again. Now, relax. In a couple of hours I have to go back to the school because of the Gryffindor tryouts and I' make sure to pass her the message, okay?"

She sighed. "You sure this will work?"

"One can never be sure… but I'd say it's likely it will," Sirius admitted.

Mia nodded then. "You're sort of a genius, you know? You've barely ever been face to face with her and you can read her better than me."

"The ability to read evil people comes with growing up with a herd of them," he told her, looking away. "Guess they served for something, after all. Doesn't matter now." The shadow that had been in his eyes when he said that disappeared just as he looked at hers and brushed her cheek with his hand. She was his love, his escape. "But you really need to just clear your mind and let yourself relax. You know what is really great for that?"

She looked curious. "What?"

He grinned wickedly for a moment. "Your lips," Sirius said right before pointing at his own. "Right here."

Mia smiled. She should have known where he was getting. But then again, he was right. That sort of thing did clear her mind of any thought. She decided to go ahead with it and tightened her hold his shoulders, making their faces come closer together so there were mere millimetres between them. "You mean here?" she whispered.

"Touching is required," he specified, before subtracting those millimetres and brushing his lips against hers gently.

"Hum… how come you always start feeling like kissing me in the most random situations?" Mia murmured against his lips. "We were having some sort of important conversation with no romantic tone whatsoever in it a few seconds ago."

He shrugged. "For some reason I just can't get enough of you. Guess I must love you or something." And he kissed her. How soft her lips felt against him, how warm they made him feel in the inside, just like they had in the first time they'd kissed, so long ago.

Her arms left the hold on his neck and came to his sides before they dropped horizontally on the living room couch. How long it had been since they'd end up snogging in the living room couch, they couldn't remember. But it did make them feel loose… almost like when they were teenagers and sneaked into broom closets and empty classrooms more than they should.

They might have gone even further if Kreacher's bullfrog voice hadn't come from somewhere to bring them back to the world. "Master, Mistress… Master Alex is awake. Kreacher thinks he's upset."

Their lips came apart and Sirius nearly growled at the house-elf but, by the time he sat up and looked over the couch and at the doorway, the house-elf was already gone.

"Now, don't be angry at him," Mia told her husband softly, sitting up too. "It's rather touching the way he cares about the kids."

"Well, he could have waited for me to finish kissing you," he mumbled.

Mia laughed. "We both know this kissing might have led to something else that would last way too long for him to wait." She got up and stretched her arm for him. "Come on, let's see what's wrong with our little boy."

Sirius groaned before accepting her hand and getting up too. They left the living room and made their way up the stairs to the nursery.

There, they found their son sitting in his cot and whimpering with remains of tears on his cheeks as one of his little arms held on to the stuffed black dog that was his favourite toy. When he saw his parents, his face lit up a bit and he dropped the dog, raising up his arms, asking to be picked up.

Mia walked ahead, approaching the cot to lift the baby of it and snuggling him against her. The baby relaxed against his mother's hold and rested his head against her chest as she rubbed his back gently.

"Is he ill?" Sirius asked her, approaching her before he let his son's little hand grasp his thumb. He had a strong grip, so he couldn't be that bad.

Mia shook her head. "I don't think so," she told him. "I think he's just noticing that Mommy and Daddy haven't been home with him all day like they usually were. Izzy had a little phase like this when I had to get back to work after having her." She kissed her son's forehead. "Poor baby."

Alex babbled, in a better mood than he'd been a few moments before, and tried to reach for his father's face.

"Well, mate," Sirius told him, taking him off Mia's hold into his own arms. "Parents having to work is part of life. But don't worry, we'll be around as much as we can." He turned to his wife. "What do you say we take him to a walk this afternoon to make it up to him?"

Mia raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you have the Gryffindor tryouts to attend this afternoon? And a certain plan to put in practice?"

He grinned as Alex grabbed a fistful of his hair, though not too violently. "Who said Hogwarts isn't a good place for a walk?"

"Well, if that's the case…" Mia said before she reached to kiss the baby's cheek and then his Daddy's lips, "it's a date."

---

They arrived at Hogwarts little more than half an hour later, after feeding the baby and dressing him for going out.

"This," Mia told her son just as they came out of the floo connection to her office, "is Mommy's office. Mommy used to live here before your Daddy came back and you were born."

"And before Mommy there was a ghost here," Sirius said with a grin. "I wonder what happened to Binns after you replaced him. I can imagine him in a ghost retirement home boring his fellow ghosts to…" he chuckled, "well, to death."

"Oh, don't be so mean," Mia said, shaking her head as she placed the little boy on an armchair so she could search in his baby bag for a hat to cover his head from the sun that shone outside. She pulled out a dark blue one and placed it on Alex's head, only to have him trying to take it off right away. "No, honey. It's sunny outside – you'll get sick." She put it back on his head and gave him a stuffed toy to distract him, which seemed to work.

This time, Sirius was the one to pick him up and to carry him outside. Mia closed her office behind them and they made their way to the main staircase in order to reach the ground floor. But on their way there, they ended up running into McGonagall.

"Sirius, Mia, I wasn't expecting to see you here this afternoon," the professor said in surprise.

"The Gryffindor tryouts are today," Sirius explained. "I thought it wouldn't be a problem bringing them along."

The deputy-headmistress shook her head. "Oh, of course not. Is that Alex?" She smiled warmly at the little boy. "I don't think I'd seen him since last July. Merlin, he's been growing like a weed, hasn't he?"

Mia chuckled, reaching for the baby's hand and rubbing its soft skin with her thumb. "Sometimes I feel like every time I pick him up he's grown at least an inch."

"Next thing we'll know, he'll be getting into the Hogwarts express," Sirius joked as Alex looked at them, pretty clueless about what they were talking about.

"Oh, Merlin help us that day," McGonagall said. "Your daughter Isabelle isn't so bad, I'll admit, but it's only a matter of time before one of your children inherits the marauder gene. My money would be on that young man, Sirius, considering he looks so much like you."

He grinned widely. "That's my boy."

Mia sighed. "If that's the case, we'll have our hands full in the meanwhile."

The older teacher laughed. "I'm fairly sure of that. Well, I should get going now. And, Sirius, tell Angelina Johnson to pick us a decent keeper this year – Severus has been quite hopeful Slytherin will get the cup back now that Wood has graduated. I rather like to see it in my office, though."

"I'll pass the message along – I'm sure she'll be happy to make sure you don't lose part of you office's decoration," Sirius said in amusement before their former teacher resumed making her way up the stairs. Then, he looked at his son, who was entertained with the stuffed toy again. "One of these days, I'll teach you how to fly and when you come to Hogwarts you'll be the one handing the cup to McGonagall, mate."

"Not if he gets me part of the genes," Mia warned him. "And don't even think of putting him on top of a real broom until he's at least five years old. And certainly not alone, then."

"I'm not mad, woman," he told her. "This bloke will be an ace."

They made their way down to the ground floor and then left the castle in direction to the lake. The weather was wonderful – it felt like a mid-summer day. They lake's water reflected the blue sky over them and the whole landscape looked like something right out of these postcards muggles sold in souvenir shops.

The giant squid's waving tentacles over the water reminded them of the times they'd hide in little secluded places by the lake as teenagers and do things that might have gotten them several weeks of detention. Sirius eventually conjured a blanket for them to sit and for Alex to amuse himself rolling and playing outdoors – it wasn't something they had the liberty to do often, after all.

It wasn't until a quarter to five, the time for both the tryouts and Harry's detention to start, that they even thought of leaving that place.

"You should go put your plan in action," Mia told him, scooping Alex onto her lap. "Harry's detention is starting in half an hour."

Sirius shook his head as lied back on the blanket on his elbows. "I can only put it in practice when he's already there with Umbridge," he told her. "Just relax. We should get going to the pitch, though – people should start to arrive at any time to warm up. Harry might be there with the team before he's to leave to Umbridge."

"Oh I hadn't thought of that," Mia said. "Do you think he's nervous?"

"Maybe. But either he is or not, he's faced worse," Sirius replied soberly. He was the first to get up, helping her to do it too.

There were only a few Gryffindors in the Quidditch pitch, some holding broomsticks, other just sitting on the bleachers or the benches that surrounded the game field. Angelina Johnson stood in the corner talking to the team, Harry still among them at the moment though not dressed in his Quidditch robes like the others. He looked rather uncomfortable as the Quidditch captain shot him a glare.

"You brought Alex!" the heard their daughter's familiar voice coming from behind them.

They turned around to see Izzy approaching them from the stands with a huge smile on her face. She unceremoniously took her baby brother from her mother's arms and tickled him, making the little boy giggle. "How long are you gonna stay?" she asked her mother.

Mia smiled. "Long enough for you to catch up with him. It's barely been a day since you've last seen him, after all."

"I got used to having him around," she said casually before she messed the little boy's hair and he squealed.

Sirius chuckled. "I guess we can say the same. So, Izzybel, are you trying out?"

She snorted. "Me as a keeper? Yeah, right. I tried once and nearly fell of the broom. I'd rather stick with the amicable games at the Burrow or just flying around. Sorry, Daddy."

He shrugged. "Well, one can't be good at everything… At least you can fly, something we can't say about your mother."

"Hey!" Mia complained, elbowing him.

Izzy fought back a laugh before turning to her mother. "Can I take Alex to stay with me, Ginny, Hermione and Luna? We'll watch him. Or can you come and sit with us? That way you wouldn't have to worry."

Mia sighed, watching her daughter's pleading look – it wasn't like she was asking to use her brother as a quaffle. "Alright. But be careful with him. We'll just go talk to Harry and then I'll go sit with you, okay?"

Izzy smiled and made her way back to her seat with her little brother in her arms, while Mia and Sirius walked the other way, approaching the dispersing group that was the Gryffindor Quidditch team trying to talk to Harry.

"Hey," he said when he saw them. "I was just leaving for the detention."

"Are you nervous?" Mia asked him softly.

He shrugged. "I've had detentions before."

"Not with her," Sirius pointed out. "But we have it covered."

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Just go there and you'll find out," his godfather said, giving him a look that clearly asked him to trust him.

"And then come find us," Mia added. "We'll be around."

"Okay," Harry said, a bit suspicious, before turning around to leave the pitch. Before disappearing, he waved at the girls and at a very nervous Ron that was exiting the dressing rooms, holding the broom he'd received from his parents as a gift for making prefect.

"Well, I think I'll get going, then," Sirius told her. "Wish me luck scaring Umbridge without showing that's what I'm trying to do."

She smiled. "Scary Sirius."

---

Umbridge's office looked like it had come right out of some sort of very… strange girly magazine. Everything was covered with lacy covers and cloths, there were dried flowers in jars everywhere and a whole wall was covered with a collection of ornamental plates adorned with cats. All of it in _pink. Wickedness_, Harry thought as he stared at the ridiculously ugly plates_, does have very strange surroundings this time_. He wasn't sure if he should feel like laughing or freaked out over it.

Suddenly, he felt a great urge to just run away from there, from that ridiculousness. Harry observed the woman for a moment as her back was turned to him. She looked sturdy but he thought he might have a good chance of tackling her and make a run for it if he was quick enough.

_You're not running, you little coward,_ a voice in his head said. After all, if he'd endured being in the same room as Lockhart three years before when he was only twelve, he couldn't chicken out with Umbridge now that he was fifteen.

"Evening, Professor Umbridge," Harry said stiffly.

The woman looked at him and gave a little sniff before waving her hand and signaling for him to sit in a small lace-draped table in a corner. He did as she told and thought for a moment of asking her for clemency and beg for an hour to attend the Quidditch tryouts, if not for anything else, to support his best mate. But he didn't have a chance in hell and pissing her off wouldn't be a good idea.

"Now, Mr. Potter," Umbridge said, smiling and this time meaning it as she closed the door. The boy didn't even know what was coming. "This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories."

Harry gritted his teeth inside his mouth as he heard that but didn't say a thing, just looking away from her.

"There, we're getting better at controlling our temper already, aren't we?" she asked way too sweetly. "Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me, Mr. Potter. _I must not tell lies. _No, not with your quill," she added as he reached for his bag. "You're going to be using a rather special one of…"

There was a knock on the door that interrupting her and Umbridge frowned in annoyance to Harry's own satisfaction.

"Yes," the professor all but spat.

The office's door opened and, to Harry's clear surprise, Sirius poked his head into the room.

"Er… excuse me," Sirius said, forcing his voice to sound a little embarrassed.

Umbridge frowned at seeing him, nearly showing her teeth in rage. "Mr. Black. How can I help you?"

He coughed . "I'm sorry, it's just that the Quidditch tryouts are about to start and I've completely forgotten to bring my broomstick," he said. "I just needed to ask Harry if I could borrow his firebolt. Better have something fast to make sure I catch those kids in time, in case they fall, hum?"

Harry raised an eyebrow at him. What was he playing at? They'd just been together a few minutes before and he hadn't mentioned anything about having forgotten his broomstick. Maybe he'd just remembered it… no. Sirius had mentioned something about having his detention under control. He was playing at something, Harry realized before tagging along. "Er, sure, go ahead and use it."

Sirius's face shifted to fake relief. He was good… only someone who'd known him for a long time or that knew of his plan would recognize the pretending. "Thanks, you're a lifesaver. Oh, and, by the way, we've brought you _brother_ Alex along. I thought you might like to see him later. Your godmother and I will probably stay late today because of the tryouts. Find us later, would you? We'd love to know how this detention went… Don't leave out any detail."

"Hum, okay."

"Great," Sirius said. "Well, I'd better get back now." Then, he turned to Umbridge and gave her a fake apologetic look. "So sorry for the interruption."

And then, he closed the door, leaving a furious Umbridge behind, nearly smoking out of her ears.

"Hum, professor," Harry said, a few seconds later. "The special quil…"

The woman pursed her lips in fury – she knew she couldn't use a blood quill now. Not with the brat's godparents watching so close. "Just go ahead and use yours, Mr. Potter. I've just remembered this one wasn't working so well."

Outside, Sirius listened and grinned. He had no idea what the matter with the 'special quill' was but, judging from her tone while refusing it to Harry, he guessed it might be cursed or something. One way or the other, he had a feeling his plan had worked – now she knew she'd have to get through him and Mia before she even thought of touching a hair of Harry. And didn't the annoyance that came for her with knowing it just make him want to do a victory dance?

He was pretty sure now she officially hated him and Mia but it was a necessary hazard to protect their godson. And, maybe recklessly, Sirius didn't care in the slightness. He ended up not doing the victory dance but he did grin all the way back to the Quidditch pitch.

**A/N: Well, how did you like this one? Sorry it, once again, took a whole week for me to update but today was my last day of classes before Christmas break . Well, send some feedback! Review!**

**P.S: As an early Christmas present for everyone, I'll update next chapter a little earlier (it is already halfway done, anyway...). Who has some nice Christmas spirit? :D**


	46. Hogsmeade

As weeks passed, the environment at the school became heavier and heavier with Umbridge's powers over the school increasing visibly: after a ministry decree was published barely a week after the school had started, she'd been appointed High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, a new and rather made up position that allowed her to inspect her fellow teacher's classes and to see if they should be allowed to remain teaching.

Umbridge had been more than happy to use it as an opportunity to harass a few teachers that were not to her liking – namely Sirius and Mia – and to try and find some dirt on them. She'd been not so happy, however, to realize she hadn't been able to squeeze a single thing out of it that could get them sacked and out of her way.

At the same time, her newfound influence over the school and lack of improvement in teaching, worried several students. Ever since his detention, Harry had endured the possible and the impossible just not to get another one of those with her again, considering Umbridge had looked more than enraged whenever he was in her office doing lines – sometimes he felt like she wanted to stab him with that 'special quill' of hers that she kept clutching in her hand.

His biggest comfort while attending her pointless classes full of snide comments about Voldemort's 'alleged' return was knowing that he, Ron and Hermione had their own side plans to take matters in their own hands. Teaching defence against the dark arts themselves secretly had been Hermione's idea that, after a lot of discussing, they decided to put in practice with a recruiting meeting at the first Hogsmeade weekend, which was scheduled for the fifth of October. The days that took for it to come felt like they had twice the normal size but, finally, in a rather sunny morning, the day of the visit finally came.

It was just after ten-thirty in the morning when Sirius and Mia arrived at the village – completely oblivious to their godson's plans –, after leaving Alex with Elizabeth for the day. Though they usually spent weekends at home, knowing that the kids wouldn't be within the castle's protection wards that day didn't make them feel so comfortable staying away.

"Besides, it's been a while since we've had a Hogsmeade date, hasn't it?" Sirius reasoned as they walked along the village's High Street.

Mia turned to him with an eyebrow rose. "So this is a date, hum?"

"Why wouldn't it be? We're walking all cosy in Hogsmeade, I've kissed you at least twice already and…" he couldn't think of more. "Well, unless you'd rather call this 'being here because we're afraid Death Eaters will attack our kids out of nowhere', which sounds rather depressive and paranoid, a date would be the closest hit. If you want to go to Madame Puddifoot's Tea Shop later to make it official…"

She elbowed him. "I've only stepped foot on that lacy nightmare once and swore never to come back. Although, I guess a date sounds better than that other label you gave this," she agreed with a smile. "But why is it that I can't remember you asking me on this date at all, Mr. Black? How very rude of you!"

He chuckled. "Well, if that's the problem…" they stopped walking and he turned on his side to face her, "will you give me the honour of going on a rendezvous to Hogsmeade with me?"

Mia made a thoughtful face. "Oh, I don't know. There was this other guy I wanted to go with… "

"Hey!" He showed her his wedding ring. "Married here. That deal says I get dibs on you, remember? Tell that other bloke to go watch the clouds or something."

"Okay, okay," she said with a chuckle. "I guess I'll have to say 'yes' to you, after all, as you get _dibs_. But I hope you realize this won't be a very… orthodox date. It's likely we'll run into loads of people we know, the children included."

Sirius snorted, wrapping one arm around her shoulders as they resumed walking. "We've managed a honeymoon with kids there… I'm sure we'll manage a date like this too."

"If you say so…" She leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed, watching the gold, russet and red leaves spattered like a fiery carpet on the floor. Autumn looked good on Hogsmeade, Mia thought. It always had. And now it made her feel sad. "This is so different but, at the same time, just the same," she whispered.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?"

"You said it had been a long time since we'd last been on a date here in Hogsmeade. I meant that now things are so different but at the same time so similar to what they were before," she explained. "We've grown – maybe not as easily as we might have imagined –, lived our lives, got married, created a family… but the world is nearly back to where it was. We know we can't be here at Hogsmeade without looking over our shoulders to see if there's anyone suspicious around." Mia took a deep breath. "We have no idea of what You-know-who is planning right now but I think we all know where it is going to end: a war. Just like before."

There were a few moments of silence when they both contemplated her words.

"The world is a messed up place," Sirius replied simply. He wouldn't bother denying it to her – if he did, he'd just be patronizing her. He knew as well as she did that, ever since Harry had announced Voldemort's return, a war was the nearly unstoppable end. _And speaking of Harry…_ he thought as he saw his godson approaching him and Mia with a serious look on his face.

Sirius's arm stopped surrounding Mia and came down to simply hold her hand – he knew Harry was at that age when he didn't care much for someone else's public displays of affection – especially not his godparent's.

"Hey," Harry greeted his godparents as he reached them. "I… hum, I needed to talk to you guys… privately."

As it was only the three of them, Sirius assumed the 'privately' part meant Harry wanted to have the conversation somewhere more secluded. "Follow us, kid."

Harry nodded and didn't say another word until they reached their destination – a little meadow near the Shrieking Shack, where not many people dared to go, due to its alleged haunting.

"Well, what do you need to talk to us about, Harry?" Mia asked him calmly.

"I… I'm not sure of how to say this… I'm mostly just telling you because I promised that communication would go both ways between us but I don't want to get into too much detail in this," Harry started. "The least you know, the better for you…"

She grimaced at his hesitation. "Harry, you're starting to scare me. Look if you're not telling us something to protect us but you feel like you need to let it out, just go ahead and say it. We'll deal with it."

Harry shook his head. "No, it's not that." He sighed. "I'll just go to the point: Ron, Hermione and I came up with this idea. In a way, it is against Umbridge. We're not planning to take her down or anything, we just… we want to make sure everyone gets their chance of learning how to defend themselves. We want to do the job she's not doing. It's not dangerous itself, but she won't like it at all if she finds out. That's why we'll keep this a secret. I just don't want to get into the details so she won't be able to use it against you."

Mia was pretty sure that all the trouble Harry had gotten himself into had started out as non-dangerous but he was fifteen already – she couldn't protect him from all potential sort of danger forever. He wasn't a little boy anymore – he hadn't been for a while. "Okay, before you say anything more, a few questions. Do you think this is necessary?" Mia asked him honestly.

He nodded without doubt. It might be vital for all of them, even.

"Do you think you can handle it?" she asked him

He sighed. "I hope I can. I'm not sure but Ron and Hermione are positive I can."

Sirius coughed, calling their attention. "Will Izzy be in it too?"

Harry sighed and nodded. "Probably – I haven't told her yet but I'd say she'll step in without a doubt. I think she should."

"Good," he said – he had a feeling that was something he wanted both his oldest kids to take part in.

"Will you be watching out for her like the big brother you are?" Mia asked, just to confirm what she believed.

"Of course. I always do."

Mia gave him a smile before her husband sighed and spoke. "Last question." He made a little moment of suspense before breaking into a grin. "Will this be a figurative kick in the arse of that frog-faced banshee you call a teacher?"

Harry laughed this time. "More like repetitive kicks."

"Alright. We don't need to know anything else," Sirius told him. He was more or less getting the picture already and he believed Mia was too. He pictured the plan as creating some sort of group and study or train DADA together. He wasn't sure of how big or what the methods would be used but those could be classified as details. The idea itself was… brilliant.

"Do you need help with anything?" Mia asked him.

"I want to see if this will work first," Harry replied. "But thanks. So… you guys are okay with it?"

Sirius snorted. "I can tell you that, as a marauder, I'd be pretty disappointed if you, a marauder's son, didn't do a thing to make sure that woman wouldn't have her way. I'm more than okay with this."

Mia bit her lower lip before speaking. "I'm okay too but… Harry, you have to _promise_ us you'll be careful. You've earned our trust already but I need to hear you saying it to me."

"I will be careful," he promised firmly. "I have to… it's probably not all that dangerous but I will be, if not for my own sake, for the other's." He glanced at his watch and grimaced. "I really need to get going. There's this meeting…"

"Go," Sirius told him with a grin. "But before… I think you should know that James would be proud of you."

Harry's face beamed like a light at hearing that. "Thanks." And then, he turned around and ran in the town's direction before he was late for that meeting of his.

Mia sighed and rested her head on her husband's shoulder. "He's all grown up." She wasn't sure if she should be happy or sad for that. Deep down, what she really felt was happiness, though it would take her a while to get used to it

"Kids can't stay kids forever," Sirius told her, rubbing her arm before he placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Come on – how about we go to the three broomsticks? I feel like having a butterbeer now. No place for sulking in a date, Mrs. Black."

---

They entered the Three Broomsticks to find it already packed with students and other teachers. Madam Rosmerta barely had time to breathe, between serving the orders at the counter and yelling at the other bartenders to do something.

Though the whole environment inside the pub made them nostalgic, they couldn't help wondering where on Earth they'd sit. They looked around, trying to find a free table, which seemed to be inexistent, when, suddenly, their eyes landed on none other than Remus sitting at one of the tables by the window with an explosively red-haired Tonks.

Sirius and Mia looked at each other with eyebrows rose for a moment.

"Is that…?" Mia mumbled.

"Yeah."

"Should we go say 'hi' or something?"

"Absolutely." Sirius responded with a grin. That would give him an excuse to tease old Moony a bit…

They made their way through the packs of students until they reached their friend's table.

"Well, well, what do we have here, Moony?" Sirius said with a grin when he and Mia reached the table. "Hey, Tonks. Nice hair."

The auror smiled. "Thanks – I was trying a new colour for today. Ended up Weasley-ish," she said cheerfully. "How's it going?"

"Pretty good," Sirius said. "You?"

"Always up," she replied. "You guys wanna join us? This place is pretty packed."

"Oh, I don't know. We could wait for another table if you guys would rather be here alone," Mia said with a smile. "I'm sure it won't be that long before we can get one."

Sirius nodded, still grinning widely. "Exactly. We wouldn't want to get in the way of Moony finally discovering the art of socializing without us making him."

Remus narrowed his eyes at him. "We're here in order business, Sirius, not socializing."

"Well, if that's the case, then," Sirius said, before taking a seat by his old's friend's side. "But you know you can do both things at the same time, right? Socializing and working. "

"Oh, give him a break, Sirius," Mia said, shooting him a warning look, before taking a seat by Tonks's side. "So, you two are here to watch over the kids?"

"Yeah," Tonks said. "Dumbledore obviously doesn't want the students out of the castle unwatched, especially after what happened to Harry over the summer. Bill and Charlie are doing the street patrol for now – we're supposed to switch places with them in about twenty minutes."

"Anything strange going on, so far?" Sirius asked. For a moment, he thought it had been stupid of him and Mia not to think that the order might provide some protection.

Remus shook his head. "Nothing but a bunch of kids goofing around and trying to sneak into the Hog's Head to get firewhiskey. Nothing you and James have never tried to do."

Sirius grinned. "I recall you being with us at the time, Remus. Good times, hum?"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't so great when Lily caught you guys smuggling a full bottle into your dorm," Mia pointed out.

Tonks snorted. "Really?"

She nodded. "The only adjective I can think of to classify her reaction is 'loud'."

"Those redheads have some lungs," Sirius mumbled.

Mia smiled at the memory one more time before turning to their old friend. "So, Remus, how are you doing? We've barely heard of you outside the meetings lately."

Remus sighed. "I'm alright, thanks. I got a job, actually, down at Cornwall – that's mostly why I've been missing lately. A muggle one, though. Not the best but it's something, at least – with this new anti-werewolf legislation, nobody in the wizarding world seems to be willing to employ one."

"That's horrible," Mia said in disgust. "Whoever's written that law should be bitten in the arse by one – no offense, Remus, but that would be poetic justice in its best. I'd like to see the roles reversed."

"No discussion there," he said under his breath.

"You two have actually met the person who's written that law," Tonks informed them, looking rather upset about it. "We've ran into Izzy and Ginny earlier and they had quite a bit to tell Remus about her crappy classes."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Umbridge, hum? Well, that explains why the whole thing smelled so muddy." He gave Remus a sympathetic look. "Sorry, man."

Remus shrugged. "I'm already getting used to it."

"Well, you shouldn't," Tonks said. "That's like publishing a legislation against… deaf people or something. Just because they have a problem, it doesn't mean they don't deserve the same opportunities as everyone else."

"I'd drink to that but I'm dry," Sirius with a grin before poking Remus with his elbow and getting up. "Come on, Moony. Let's be gentlemanly and get us and the ladies some drinks." He winked at his wife. "Maybe that way some of us will get lucky later."

Mia rolled her eyes at him. As if he needed to get her drinks to get lucky, these days.

Remus sighed and got up, going after Sirius to the mob that surrounded the counter. It would probably take them a few minutes before they would even be able to touch the counter's surface, considering how packed it looked.

"Well, Moony, I'll confess that for a moment when I saw you sitting at that table with Tonks, I thought I could stop trying to get you a girl," Sirius told him with a chuckle. "She's pretty great, hum?"

His friend huffed. "Padfoot, don't get started."

"Oh, come on, Moony, I'm not trying to fix you up or anything but don't tell me you don't see it too," Sirius said in disbelief. "She's colourful, always cheerful. Nobody can be depressed when they're with her. Not even you."

"Sirius," Remus nearly hissed just as the managed to step forward, towards the pub's counter. "Just stop it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Merlin, aren't you touchy today, Moony? What's gotten into you? A guy can't even talk about a g…" Sirius stopped, being hit by realization. "Wait a minute. You _like_ her. That's why you're all touchy. You have a crush on Tonks."

"A crush? What are you? Twelve?"

"Moony, don't try to change the subject. Come on. This is great. She's _perfect_ for you," Sirius told him honestly. "What's keeping you from trying? Doesn't she like you back?"

The werewolf didn't respond for several seconds. He really wasn't looking forward to keep feeding the conversation but the cat was out of the bag... he knew Sirius would never give him a rest. "Maybe. I'm not sure." There had been a few looks, words, actions… but nothing certain yet. Or maybe there had but he'd made an effort to ignore it. "But it doesn't matter. It will never happen."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Well, that's just bullshit, Moony. Why the hell wouldn't it happen? Because of your…" he lowered his voice to avoid the crowd's attention, "furry little problem? Sorry, mate, that only serves as an excuse during full moons."

Remus shook his head. "It's different this time. I… I'm too dangerous, too poor… I have way too much baggage."

"You've been with girls before and you already had that problem. And you've just heard her – she doesn't care you're… you know."

"I'm over a decade older than her."

"Oh! Shame on you, you cradle robber. Mothers, lock up your daughters," Sirius said sarcastically. "You think _I_'d care if Mia was much younger than me? When it hits you, it hits you. If you're making such a big deal out of denying being with her, it is because you really care. I'm warning you, mate, if you really like her, even love her, letting her go will be the worst mistake you'll ever make."

"She deserves someone young and whole," he mumbled.

Sirius shrugged and patted his back. "Tonks is related to my dear old family – if there's one thing the blacks were, apart from evil, it's persistent. If she really wants you, good luck trying to get away," he said just as they reached the counter. He decided to drop the subject with Remus and just let him cook for a while, as he ordered the drinks. "Madam Rosmerta, long time no see." He thought back of the time when he and James would flirt shamelessly with her, trying to get her to give them some firewhiskey… never successfully.

The woman looked at him and chuckled, while serving a pint to one of the costumers. "Sirius Black, you haven't showed your face here in a while. What can I get you?"

"Four butterbeers," he ordered. "Place is full today."

"It always is when Hogwarts has Hogsmeade weekends," Rosmerta told him as she served the mugs. "Your girl was here earlier with her friends. You've missed her by a few minutes."

"Ah, we can find her later," Sirius said with a chuckle, receiving the mugs she'd passed him and paying. "Thanks." He turned around to Remus, who was still standing behind him, looking rather melancholic now. "Still thinking? Well, take a couple of these pints while you do it, would you? Or else it's likely they'll end up splattered on the floor."

Remus sighed and took the two mugs. "Wait, before we go back… You're not going to start dropping hints on Tonks now, are you? Just leave it alone, okay?"

Sirius sighed. "I won't tell her a thing. But remember what I've told you: let her go and you'll be doing a huge mistake."

He nodded silently right before they made their way through the mob and then back to the table, where Mia and Tonks were talking.

"…Alex probably won't want to go back home after all the spoiling he'll get from his godmother," Mia was saying with a chuckle before she looked up and saw them. "Hey, I was just telling Tonks about how Elizabeth must be spoiling our son rotten."

"Oh, yeah," Siruis mumbled. "Well, I guess it' fine, as long as she gives him back."

They kept on talking, rather lively, with Sirius always keeping an eye on Remus and Tonks. By the time they left to replace Bill and Charlie in the patrol, he was pretty sure his old friend wasn't the only one of the pair that had a thing for the other. Now, those two were a work in progress.

"So, what were you and Remus talking about when you went to get your drinks?" Mia asked, looking at him as she took a sip of her butterbeer. "I could see by your faces it was serious. Anything about the order?"

"The Order? No," he said. "Let's just say, Moony's eyes have finally landed on a girl."

She smiled widely, putting the mug down. "Really? Do we know her?"

"We've just been with her, actually," he informed her, grinning back. "How oddly perfect is that?"

Mia stared in amazement. "Tonks? Really? I mean, I don't think I'd have thought of it anytime soon but… you're right, it's strangely perfect. She's exactly the sort of woman he needs to keep him from sulking all the time. Remus does need more colour in his life."

"Exactly. He's all depressed about having the hots for her, though," Sirius told her. "Says she deserves someone better than him, younger than him, etc, etc."

"Oh, that's rubbish!" Mia said.

"That's sort of what I've told him. The bloke has a large roll of issues about himself, I'll tell you. But I reckon Tonks likes him too – hopefully, she'll take the first step and he'll end up going along with it," he said, thoughtful.

She sighed. "Hopefully. But facing your feelings for someone is a pretty hard thing to do sometimes, I'll give him that. I mean, just look at me. I had a crush on more or less since we kissed that day by the lake when we were thirteen – it took me until our seventeenth birthday to actually say something to you about it."

"Worth every minute of the wait," he told her, grinning at the memory.

"Do you think they have a shot at ending up together?" Mia asked him. "Having a bright shinny future?"

Sirius thought for a moment. "If Moony keeps that hard head of his from getting in the way, I'd say they could have. And, of course, if we put some sense in him from time to time."

"Obviously," she said, smiling. "You're sort of amazing, you know?"

He grinned. "Does that mean I'll get lucky later?"

She chuckled. "Maybe."

**A/N: I hope you liked this early Christmas present today (4k words again...). Some of you were pretty much looking forward for a bit of Remus/Tonks for a while and, well, who am I to refuse a canon relationship? This was pretty nice to write. So, send some feedback. Review!**

**Happy Christmas for you all! (I won't wish you a Happy New Year yet because I'm hoping to post again before 2010 :D)**


	47. Christmas Words

**Christmas**** 1995**

They'd known Voldemort would try something eventually – it was for sure he hadn't gone through all the trouble of coming back just to hide in a cave without causing any trouble. They hadn't expected, however, that it would happen that way, with Arthur Weasley being attacked by his snake while he was in some sort of Order mission in the Ministry of Magic's dungeons… and they'd much less expected for Harry to watch the whole thing in a dream.

Though Arthur had survived the attack and was currently in a stable condition at St. Mungo's, the incident had had repercussions in Harry, who seemed to be feeling that for some reason by having witnessed the attack on Mr. Weasley, he was responsible for it. So, he isolated himself in his room for the first two days after his return home with the excuse of being tired.

Sirius and Mia had noticed the change but, before they had the chance to go talk to Harry and get him to stop sulking or whatever it was that he was doing, Ron and Hermione had already teamed up with Ginny and Izzy and they'd all gone to have a serious conversation with him… or rather bully him into getting himself together. They seemed to be successful as, merely an hour after they'd all locked themselves in Harry's room, he could be seen in Grimmauld Place's living room with Ron listening to the wireless transmission of some Quidditch game.

His godparents were happy enough with it but that didn't keep them from pulling him aside for a little talk later that day, three days before Christmas.

"I… I was the snake," he told his godparents then, his voice barely a whisper as he stood in his bedroom.

"What do you mean, Harry?" Mia asked him in a soothing tone as she sat on the bed. She was doing the impossible to keep her tone calm after she'd heard him say that – it wouldn't help him knowing that hearing it had freaked her out.

He sighed as he paced in his room. "In my vision I saw it all from the snake's point of view. It was like I was it! And then, when I was telling Dumbledore about the attack, I still felt like one. Like I wanted to bite him too."

Mia looked at Sirius, who sat on the desk chair in front of them – she had no idea of what to say to Harry about that. That certainly wasn't the thing one expected their fifteen-year-old godson to say…

Sirius took over from there, as she didn't seem to come up with any words. "Has this happened before? You've told us you had visions before but have any of those been like this one?"

He shook his head, sitting on the bed by his godmother's side. "I've never seen them from someone or something else's eyes – the other times were like I was there in my own body. This time, the body wasn't mine."

"And that's why you were so freaked out," Sirius said, receiving a nod in return.

"You'd be freaked out too if you saw yourself in something else's body attacking someone you know and like," he told his godfather, who gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "At first I thought Voldemort had somehow possessed me and gotten me to do the attack, apparated me out of the castle…"

"What? No, that's impossible!" Mia told him with certainty. "You were in your bed at Hogwarts, Harry. It's impossible to…"

"… apparate in and out of the castle," he quoted Hermione. "I know, I know. The others have already covered those bases – Ron says he saw me tossing and turning in my bed and Hermione's told me that thing about apparating for the millionth time. Ginny reckons I wasn't possessed either – she'd know it, I guess, as she's been possessed before. Izzy thinks this may be like the perselmouth thing… that Voldemort gave this to me too. I wish that it wasn't me. Just for once, I wish it hadn't been me."

Mia sighed. "We know it's not fair to you, Harry. And we wish we could do something to make things like this go away but we don't have that power."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "Exactly. And one thing is for sure: it wasn't your fault Arthur was attacked. You saved his life, actually. That's way more than any of us can say. Hell, by your age I was about to do one of the biggest stupidities of my life and nearly get Snape killed by sending him to Moony during full moon, as you already know. You saved a life – that's pretty great, don't you think?"

Harry sighed. That was a good way of putting it. Mia had told him once that everything had a good and a bad side… maybe this time, the good side had been bigger than the bad one. He'd just needed someone to remind him of that. For a moment, he smiled to himself and then replied to his godfather. "Yeah, that's great. But it doesn't explain why it happened."

His godmother shrugged. "You know, Izzy may be right. You-Know-Who gave you powers he didn't know he was giving you when he tried to kill you. Maybe he gave you this… window to his head too. A way to know what he's doing."

Harry huffed. "A view of a dark-lord's thoughts out of my head… that sucks."

"I have to agree with that," Sirius said. "But at least it doesn't happen all the time, does it? You haven't been having dreams like that one since, have you?

"No," Harry told him. He'd been having dreams of that door again – the one that lead to the Department of Mysteries. And he'd been so close to opening it this time… But he always woke up before. Maybe he'd never open it. "It freaks me out," he murmured, referring to the possible cream connection to Voldemort.

"We know," Mia told him, wrapping one arm comfortingly around her godson's shoulders. "Look, we've talked to Dumbledore about this. He wants you to learn occlumency – it's a way to close your mind from invasions. Maybe it will help with the dreams, maybe it won't. But it can be useful later."

"Do you know Occlumency too?" Harry asked.

Mia shook her head while Sirius nodded. "Your grandfather taught me and your father a bit – he was a very good occlemens and wanted James and I to be protected. Your father was fairly better at it than I am, though."

"Hum, so who's going to teach it to me? You?"

Sirius shook his head. "You'd do better learning it from someone who actually knows the stuff well," his godfather explained. "We don't know who's gonna do it yet. But we'll ask later."

Mia nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Just don't worry about it now and try to be a regular kid for Christmas."

"Which shouldn't be hard with the Weasleys spending Christmas here," Sirius told him with a chuckle. "A prank or two by the twins will fix you right up. I heard something about them wanting to try some sort of candy that makes you sing with Celestina Warbeck's voice. Priceless."

Harry made a face. "I'll keep an eye on my plate to make sure they don't slip me one of those, then," he mumbled. "I'd only make a fool of myself." Though, he was pretty sure everyone else would consider that image even better than a Christmas present…

"Well, that's the point, isn't it?" Sirius asked, giving him an obvious look.

Mia turned to him. "Where do Fred and George get those ideas from, anyway? More, where do they get the funding to put them in practice?" She shot her husband a suspicious look. "You're not the one supplying them, are you? Because Molly would have a fit if she found out."

"Me? No. I know better than getting on Molly's bad side," Sirius said quickly. He had a feeling he knew exactly who'd given the twins the money for their business. Or was it a coincidence that just after Harry had won a good sum of money at the Triwizard Tournament that had puffed all of a sudden, Fred and George had won a silent partner for their business and a gotten around a thousand galleons richer?

"Well, speaking of Molly, she must be arriving from the hospital soon. I'd better go check if Kreacher needs help with dinner – it's not every day he has over ten people to feed," she said, getting up. "You can get to those sordid male conversations you guys have behind woman's backs." She made her way out and closed the door behind her when she left.

Sirius then leaned against the back of the chair, crossing his arms against his chest. "So, I've been meaning to ask, how's that super secret rebellion against Umbridge of yours going? I can't really ask these things at Hogswarts – Merlin knows that sneaky bat or her Slytherin snitched may be hearing all we say."

"Yeah, you can never be too careful with them," Harry agreed. "But the 'rebellion, which is not actually a rebellion, by the way, is good. It's really good. We're making loads of progress. Those spells you and Aunt Mia thought me last year were really useful."

"Well, we're here to help," Sirius replied with a grin. "Do you need us to teach you any other specific spell?" He grinned. "I know a few that aren't so defensive but they could provide a good distraction."

Harry chuckled, only imagining what it might be. "Thanks. Maybe I'll take you up on that later."

"I'll be waiting. And what about in… other types of subjects? Need any help?"

"Nah, I think I'm doing fine at all subjects… well, except for potions but I'd say that's to be expected."

Sirius smirked. "I didn't mean school subjects, kid. I was talking more about… female subjects." He watched in amusement as a blush worthy of any Weasley covered his godson's face. "Is it me or that Chang girl who plays seeker for Ravenclaw has been sending you a few doe-eyed looks lately? I think I've noticed her stealing a glance or two at several occasions. You had a thing for her last year, hadn't you?"

"Hum… er…" Harry stuttered nervously. "Yeah, kind of. She's been… hum… showing some interest lately. A lot, actually. But… listen, the other day, in the afternoon before Mr. Weasley's attack, we were alone together and it looked like she was… like she was going to kiss me."

"Nice."

"No. Not nice. There was no kiss – she just started crying all of a sudden and talking about Cedric and what they'd done last Christmas. I know she's upset but… it's like she's only with me because I was there when Cedric… died. Like I'm replacing him."

Sirius nodded in understanding. "It happens sometimes, Harry. But you don't have to go along with it. If it makes you uncomfortable you can just let go. Unless you think there's more to it."

Harry shook his head. "No, I don't think I like her that way anymore. Is it normal? Last year I could barely stop thinking of her."

He laughed. "You had a crush – that's as normal for a teenage boy as rain here in London. Some stick, others don't, Harry," his godfather said with a smile. He had a feeling that the bonding he'd had with a certain redhead girl in the past summer had contributed to the end of Harry's crush on Cho Chang but he wouldn't mention it now. The kid was embarrassed enough by talking to him about girls. "I had plenty of crushes myself. My point is it's normal so there's no need for you to feel guilty about it, mate."

He sighed in relief. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Sirius replied with a grin and he just couldn't help himself asking, innocently asking. "So, do you have anyone else in your mind now?"

The return of the furious blush to Harry's cheeks gave him away before he could even say a word. "I… er… sort of." He paused. "But it's complicated. See, we're friends. I don't want to ruin our friendship over a crush. What if it fades too like Cho's did?"

Sirius snorted, causing Harry to look at him in alarm. "Sorry. It's just that you sound like me twenty years ago. Let's just say I had a crisis like yours."

"Oh," Harry murmured. "And what happened?"

"Well, at first I was confused, then the girl and I started snogging from time to time, then we started dating and, well," he showed his wedding ring to his godson, "you know the rest."

"Oh… _Oh!_ Aunt Mia?" Harry asked in amazement.

"Yep. The thing about crushes is that you don't really know what they'll lead into until you do something about it. Sometimes, they may be your lucky break. My only advice is that you don't jump into it – first think if you _really_ like her that way. Not just the idea of her – I mean _her_: the way she acts, the way you connect and all the other stuff. If you do, give it a shot. It's worth the risk."

"There's other thing," Harry mumbled. "There are some people I'm friends with that might not like it so much. Not because they wants to date her or anything. They're just… protective."

If Sirius had any doubt his godson had been referring Ginny Weasley, now they had disappeared. He was clearly talking about her family, mainly her very numerous, very protective brothers. "Don't mind them – they'll get over it."

He grinned. "Thanks for the advice."

His godfather chuckled, getting up. "Yeah, well, I feel like lately I've been giving relationship advice as if it was candy. Now, I'll get going and leave you to start evaluating how much you like that girl." Sirius made his way to the door and left the room in a good mood before starting to descend the stairs – as long as his godson's mind was occupied with the fiery Ginny Weasley, he wouldn't be worrying about his possible connection to that snake-faced bastard Voldemort.

"… _they're going to spend the Eve with Dad's side of the family," _he heard Tonks's familiar voice downstairs._ "I gave them an excuse and said I already had plans with some friends – see, Dad's side is all Muggle and they don't feel too comfortable with my 'colourful attributes', like they call it."_

"_Well, now__ it's not an excuse. You're spending Christmas with us,"_ his wife's voice replied, making him grin just as he reached the ground floor and made his way to them, standing by the front door. Tonks's hair was back in its usual pink that day.

Mia turned her face to him just as he stood by her side and slipped an arm around her back. "Oh, there you are. Tonks escorted Molly back here from the hospital – I was just inviting her for Christmas dinner."

"You don't have to, really," Tonks told them. "I know you have plenty of guests already, with the Weasleys here and all."

Sirius shook his head. "Don't even think of it, Tonks. The more the merrier. Besides, you're family. You're definitely coming." And how nice was it that Moony was coming for Christmas dinner too and staying afterwards?

Tonks lifted her arms in defeat. "Alright, alright. I give up. I'm coming."

The couple grinned victoriously. "We'll serve dinner by seven but I'd say it's safe for you to show up from six on," Mia told her happily. "If you come earlier, be ready for the madness."

"I'll keep that in mind," the auror replied with a chuckle.

"Oh, and bring a change of clothes because you're spending the night. There's plenty of rooms in this house so don't bother discussing it," Mia told her in a firm tone that almost made Sirius believe she was possessed by Molly Weasley.

Tonks sighed. "Alright, alright."

They talked for a couple more minutes before Tonks realized she should be back at work in five minutes and quickly excused herself, leaving Sirius and Mia standing on the hall by themselves.

"Quite a Christmas dinner we'll be having the day after tomorrow, hum?" Sirius said with a chuckle.

Mia smiled. "Well, at least I'm not a pregnant hormone bomb then."

He grinned back and dropped a kiss on her forehead. "You did have a special charm back then, though. Despite the whole kicking me out thing."

"Oh, I'm still kicking you out this year," she told him like it was the most natural thing in the world. "You and the kids. Get Remus, Bill and Charlie and take them all out for a few hours because I don't want the whole bunch of you trying to sneak food out of the kitchen all afternoon long."

Sirius groaned. "You're a cruel, cruel wife."

"Yes, I'm completely heartless. But you love me anyway," she said with a grin, patting his cheek. "Now, go give Alex a bath before dinner, would you?"

---

Eight Weasleys, four Blacks, one Potter along with Remus, Tonks, Lulu and Gabriel made one hell of a lot people to spend Christmas Eve with and there would have been five more if them if Elizabeth hadn't gone to spend her Christmas with some relatives overseas along with her father and children and Hermione hadn't gone home to her parents. But, like Sirius had said, the more the merrier and Christmas Eve that year hadn't lacked cheerfulness at 12 Grimmauld Place.

While the twins had been entertained poking the live fairies that decorated the tree and turning them into different colours, Harry and Ron had been rather entranced in a chess match, that was, before the twins had gotten the fairies to chase them all over the house.

In the meanwhile, Ginny and Izzy sat on the floor, entertained by trying to get little Alex to walk. At nearly ten months, however, the most the little boy could do was standing while holding onto the sofa, always ending up falling on his butt before he could even take a step, to his older sister and her best friend's dismay. He hadn't seemed so bothered by it, though, laughing like he'd just seen the funniest thing in the world every time he ended up on the floor. From time to time, Tonks would turn up and join the girls in entertaining the baby.

The adults had sat around the fireplace, talking, reminiscing and laughing. Gabriel had seemed the most nostalgic of them all, Mia had noticed. It might be because that was the first time he celebrated Christmas in fifteen years. It might also be because that was the first time he celebrated it with her in his life. Deep down, she felt happy for it too – as the months passed, that friendship she'd promised her birth father to try and get back had been lightly restored, despite the initial awkwardness. Though she still couldn't bring herself to look at him and see him as her father, it was good having an old friend back.

At some point, Sirius had found an excuse to leave Remus and Tonks alone by the fireplace – which was worth a glare by his old friend – in the hope that they'd fall to their senses and just get together once and for all. They hadn't. Those two, or rather just Remus, needed way more effort than normal people did.

It was nearly midnight when people started to retire to their rooms for the night and, in Lulu and Gabriel's case as well as Bill and Charlie's – who'd insisted in spending the night at the Burrow in order to be able to sleep late – leave to their own place.

As the others prepared to go to bed, Sirius, followed by Mia, carried their sleeping son into the nursery as quietly as he could, in order not to wake the little boy. He'd eventually fallen on his sister's lap and, as it didn't seem to bother Izzy, they hadn't had the courage disturb his sleep until it was actually needed.

"This is his very first Christmas," Mia whispered as Sirius laid the baby on the changing table so Mia could dress him in his pyjamas. "And he's already gotten so big."

Sirius grinned. "You know what we could get him for Christmas this year? A little sibling."

His wife chuckled. "We'll see," she promised, carefully removing the red jumper the baby had on, trying unsuccessfully not to wake him.

The little boy whimpered, not so happy with being disturbed in his sleep, and opened those grey eyes that matched his father's exactly and gave his mother an upset sleepy look. And then, he surprised both of his parents by saying his very first actual word. "Mama," he said, as if complaining sleepily.

Mia's eyes opened wide and she turned to Sirius in amazement. "Did he…?"

Sirius nodded, also in amazement. "Wow. Quite a Christmas gift."

Her lips curled and she looked at her son again, smiling widely before leaning down to press a proud kiss on his forehead. Alex didn't seem to quite understand the commotion but he was pleased with the attention he was receiving, so the little annoyance that had covered his face before quickly vanished. "We really love you, you know?" she whispered to the baby before resuming dressing him.

By the time Mia had zipped the snowflake-covered sleepsuit up, Alex was back asleep and still likely unaware of how happy he'd made his parents with a single word. They placed him in his cot and just watched him for a moment or two before leaving the room, feeling their hearts melting with pride.

"Our little boy's just said his first word," Mia said, smiling widely as they entered their room.

Sirius closed the door, grinning too. "I sure hope the next one's first word is 'Daddy' or something in those lines, or else I'll take it personally."

"In my defence, he sounded like he was scolding me for waking him up," Mia replied, sitting on the bed, looking absolutely happy. It was like there was no evil in the world at that moment. She sighed and looked at her husband before getting up again. "I love you. Thank you for giving me our son."

He chuckled, reaching for her and wrapping his arms around her waist. "If anything, you gave him to me, Mia. But I love you too." He caressed her cheek with his thumb and pecked her lips. "It's probably after midnight already."

Mia smiled at him softly. "It is."

"So, when will I be receiving my gift, Mrs. Black?"

"In the morning like a good boy, Mr Black," she replied with a smile.

He slipped his hands under her shirt and roamed them lightly on her back, lifting her soft wool shirt a few inches. "But I'm already unwrapping it," he said innocently.

"That's because you're naughty," she told him with a smile, her lips very close to his. "Next year Father Christmas will only you give you a sac full of coal."

"Well, then I guess I might as well finish unwrapping my gift, considering I'm in the naughty list already." He grinned and his lips touched hers for a single moment before he pulled them back a couple of inched. "And then maybe give it a try before we go to sleep, don't you think?"

"What I think is that I'm going to the naughty list too," she replied, pulling him firmly to her. "Kiss me now or I'll have to make you."

"As if you'd have to," he told Mia. "I'll do way more than kissing you tonight, love." And his lips landed on hers, finally. What gift was better than that?

**A/N: Well, the Christmas chapter came a week later. Too bad I couldn't match the dates... I'll admit holiday-themed chapters are not my strength, though. I hope you liked it, anyway. Send some feedback - the last of this year :D Review.**

**And now I wish you all a Happy New Year!**


	48. Banned

**A/N: Surprise, Surprise... look who's posted early. :D**

By mid-January 1996, the school was sadly getting used to Dolores Umbridge's reign of terror… These days, there were so many damn ministry decrees that they barely fit on the warning board in the castle's entrance hall.

Though not officially, nearly all of the fifth year Slytherin class was what Sirius liked to refer as Umbridge's 'weasel troop', though they called themselves the _Inquisitorial Squad_. That day, however, they were mostly busy getting ready for the Slytherin-Gryffindor game that would take place that afternoon.

"Hum, I have a class in ten minutes, Sirius," Mia mumbled against her husband's lips. He'd allegedly dropped by her office 'just to say hi' in her mid-morning break between classes. _Sure he did, _she thought sarcastically. Nobody locked a room just to say 'hi'.

"Plenty of time," he told her before he kissed her again, casually moving his hands down her sides as they lied on that blessed couch in her office. His lips moved down to her neck and he grinned as he felt its soft skin. How great was it that he could so that sort of thing during work breaks? It wasn't part of the job description but it was certainly one of the best qualities of it.

Mia moaned. "Sirius, we've got to stop," she whispered, not too eagerly. "We're in a school, for Merlin's sake."

He dropped one last kiss on her neck and took a deep breath before pulling away and sitting up. "Being in a school – this school as a matter of fact – hasn't kept us from going farther than snogging, love."

She bit her inner lip. He had a bit of a point there… "We're teachers now," she said hopelessly.

Sirius grinned even wider. "Imagine that… the Quidditch coach and the History of Magic teacher snogging. In our time that would have been awfully disturbing."

Mia roller her eyes. "You're such a pervert."

"Proudly." He dropped a quick kiss on her lips. "You know, one of these days we should try out that bed in your official quarters. And the one in mine too."

"Horndog. Don't you have classes or something?" she asked before getting up and walking over to her desk.

He shook his head, his eyes following Mia. "I have a free period now."

"Oh, right. I'd forgotten. Well, I still have students to teach," she picked up a bunch of books on her desk and approached him to drop a kiss of goodbye on his cheek.

"Will you go to the game this afternoon?" he asked her.

She smiled. "Of course – Harry's playing. I've already arranged things with Gabe so he'll watch Alex. But I really have to go now. See you later, okay?"

"Okay," he replied, seconds before she left the room.

He left too around a minute later and used the first half hour of his free time to check on some details for the game later that afternoon. Then, seeing as all seemed to be fine, he decided to take a little walk inside the castle just to pass time before his class – he still had another half hour, after all.

To his surprise, however, he ended up running into Izzy just as he reached the first floor hallway.

"Izzybel, what are you doing out of class?" Sirius asked his daughter with a grin, as she approached. He took a better look at her when she got closer: her face was pale, her nose was red and looked miserable. There was no doubt she was sick. "Merlin, you look dreadful."

"I _feel_ dreadful," she said in a hoarse voice as he gave her a sympathetic smile and wrapped one arm around her for support. Izzy rested her head against her father's shoulder. "I got a god-awful cold."

"Have you gone to the hospital wing yet?"

She shook her head. "I was going now. Professor McGonagall dismissed me from her class after I sneezed in the middle of casting a spell and ended up turning my quill into a fish instead of a frog like she'd asked."

He chuckled and rubbed her back gently. "Poor thing – it happens to the best. Come on, Honey, Daddy's going to take you to Madam Pomfrey and she'll fix you right up."

On his way there, it crossed Sirius's mind that he'd never seen his daughter sick before. Not that he'd wanted her to be sick, though. He just couldn't help thinking that whenever she or Harry had had a fever or once they'd gotten Dragon Pox – that was, if they'd had it at all, which he had no idea – Mia had needed to deal with it without his help. Sure, she'd had Lulu but he wished he could have helped too. That was just one of the many things he'd missed out from her life thanks to bloody Wormtail…

He heard Izzy sneezing again by his side and glanced at her. "Stupid cold," she mumbled just as she was about to turn left to the main staircase. However, he pulled her back and shook his head.

"I know a shortcut," he told her, nodding at a statue of what seemed to be a winged boar that was against the wall at their right. "It will get us just a couple of corridors away from the infirmary."

"Do you know _all_ the secret passages in this castle by heart?"

Her father grinned. "Of course I do. One of the basic requirements for one to be a good prankster is to know our surroundings like the back of our hand. How else would we get away before anyone found us?"

She sighed. "I know a few of them only… Usually when I need secret passages, I get around with the map. I don't think I have that good of a memory."

He shook his head. "It's not about memory, Izzybel, it's about routine. If you use them regularly, with time those secret passages become normal ways to you. Believe me, they may be really handy from time to time – you can't always count on having the map with you." He reached for his wand in his pocket and lifted it to touch the boar's left ear. Just as he did it, the statue started moving, showing an opening behind it. Then, Sirius turned back to his daughter. "Come along."

He'd been right, Izzy thought. That secret passage had definitely saved them a lot of time, as they'd seen themselves three floors and several corridors away in a matter of two or three minutes.

However, when Umbridge stepped right in front of them just as they were about to turn around the corner, both Sirius and Izzy wished they'd taken some other way that didn't involve seeing the DADA teacher's face.

"Mr. Black," the professor said in an all too pleasant voice before glancing at Izzy. "And Miss Black. I wasn't expecting to see you out of class at this time of the day. May I ask why you are not there?"

"Professor McGonagall's dismissed me from class," Izzy told Umbridge. She might have thought of some less pleasant response but her head really was killing her and her throat felt awfully dry.

Umbridge frowned. "And why would Professor McGonagall do such a thing?"

Sirius went for irony. "Hum… maybe because Miss Black has a really bad cold and needs to get to the Hospital Wing? Which is where I'm taking her, by the way. Unless some new decree was posted and I didn't notice it, I believe the school allows students to be dismissed from class when they need to go to the infirmary."

For a single second, Umbridge didn't even bother hiding her anger but then, as if nothing had happened, she returned to her usual fake-pleasant face. "Oh, well, a lot of students have been strangely taking ill, all of a sudden."

He raised an eyebrow as, by his side, Izzy sneezed again. "It's January, professor," he said in an obvious tone. "Strange would be if nobody took ill, considering it's freezing outside."

The woman pursed her lips in frustration. "What I mean, Mr. Black, is that maybe it has to do with a certain type of sweets that makes the students ill so they can skive off their classes. Mr. Filch has apprehended a few boxes that _someone_ has smuggled into the school." She glanced down at Izzy again. "You wouldn't have heard anything about that, would you, Miss Black?"

Of course she'd had. Any Gryffindor that usually spent time at the Common Room could see Fred and George testing their Fainting Fancies and Fever Fudge on the first years. There was just no way, though, she'd tell that to Umbridge. "Not that I recall," Izzy told her before sneezing for the thousandth time that morning. "But in case you're wondering, Professor, this is an actual cold."

Umbridge sniffed. "Hum, I'll have to take your word for it… Carry on, then." And, to their relief, she walked away without another word. They just stood there for a few moments making sure she was really gone and out of earshot, before resuming making their way to the Hospital Wing.

"I see the twins are making success with their products," Sirius said casually.

Izzy chuckled. "Success doesn't cover it. I think they've made more profit last week than Zonko's does in ten average Hogsmeade weekends. Practically everyone in the…" she paused in time before saying 'DA' – even though she knew her father was relatively aware the DA, walls had ears these days so saying anything about it outside of secured rooms was too much of a risk "… er, book club… yes, everyone in the book club has a stash of skiving sweets hidden somewhere."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Including you? You were telling the truth to Umbridge, weren't you? That's a real cold, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not that desperate to miss classes, Daddy. Much less transfiguration, which I actually like. Ah, we're here," she said just as they stopped in front of the Hospital Wing.

"Get in, then," he told her before chuckling. "A wonderful-tasting potion awaits you."

"It's not funny. That thing tastes awful and ends up knocking you out for a few hours most of the time. What if I don't make it to the game this afternoon? It's Gryffindor vs. Slytherin – I can't miss it!"

"Well, there's no way your mother and I will let you go to the game if you're still sick, so you're only hope it to take the potion and sleep it off before the game starts," he told her firmly. "Be a brave little soldier, Izzybel. I'll get you a box full of sweets, the normal kind, if you're a good girl."

Izzy narrowed her eyes. "'m not four," she said before taking a deep breath and hugging him. "But thanks for bringing me here."

He chuckled, rubbing her back. "I'm sure you'd find the way on your own. You're not four."

She let out a small laugh. "Yeah, but it felt better with you bringing me," she said, smiling up at her father as she pulled away. "You're pretty good at this Dad job."

Sirius grinned – hearing her saying that sounded like music to his ears. "Well, thanks. Now go get yourself fixed up. I'll wait for you out here."

---

The game had almost – _almost_ – occurred without problems.

There were no mad bludgers, floating Dementors or people being kicked off their broomsticks. The foul play had even been reduced to a minimum, with Sirius's interventions as the referee. That, in Mia's book, was a drastic improvement – that time she actually believed she wouldn't be picking her godson up from the Hospital Wing after the game.

However, it was after all the players had hit the ground – Gryffindor having won – that the problems started. Mia wasn't quite sure what had been said but she'd witnessed from the teacher's stands a rather heated argument between Harry and Malfoy, that was later joined by the twins, growing from a simple exchange of insults into a full muggle brawl, with Harry and George punching the blond Slytherin at the end of it. Next thing she knew, Sirius was casting a shield charm between them to break them up and McGonagall was showing up, dragging the two of them to her office.

By the time Mia reached the office, Sirius was already in it, watching McGonagall scolding the two boys.

"_But instead of leaving it to Sirius to sort out, you two decided to give an exhibition of Muggle duelling, did you?_" McGonagall was shouting.

"What happened?" Mia asked her husband in a whisper. "How did that start?!"

"Malfoy insulted the Weasleys and Lily," Sirius snarled under his breath.

"Lily?!"

He nodded. "Can you believe the little prick? Called her Harry's 'filthy mudblood of a mother'. At least he could insult people who can defend themselves."

Mia shook her head, still in disbelief.

In the meanwhile, McGonagall kept shouting. "_This is completely unacceptable! Have you any idea what you've…?_"

"Hem, hem."

Everyone in the room wheeled round, facing the door to see Umbridge was standing in the doorway an, for the second time in that day, as much as he abhorred the idea of hitting a woman, he just felt like throwing a chair at her.

"May I help, Professor McGonagall?" she asked in an all-too-sweet voice.

"Help?" McGonagall repeated, in a constricted, obviously annoyed voice. "What do you mean 'help'?"

"I thought you might be grateful for a little extra authority."

"There's three staff member here already, Dolores. I believe that's authority enough," she said, turning her back on Umbridge and resuming the scolding. "Now, you two'd better listen closely. I do not care what provocation Malfoy offered you, your behavior was wrong and I am giving each of you a week's worth of detentions!"

"Hem, hem."

Sirius and Mia turned their faces towards Umbridge again, as McGonagall glared. Now, the deputy headmaster also looked like she wanted to choke the woman with her bare hands. "Yes?"

"I think they deserve rather more than detentions," said Umbridge, smiling more broadly.

"What, then? A good old whipping?" Sirius asked sarcastically. "Being hung by the toes like Filch is always suggesting, maybe."

Harry and George glance at him with wide eyes and he winked, letting them know he was joking.

"That's just what I was wondering," McGonagall agreed, glaring. "Unfortunately, it is what I think that counts, as they are in _my_ House, Dolores."

"Well, actually, Minerva," Umbridge replied with a sigh before starting rummaging in her handbag and removing a rolled up piece or parchment, "I think you'll find that what I think does count. 'Educational Decree Number Twenty-five'."

"Not another one!" Mia said. Would there _ever _be an end to it?

"Well, yes," said Umbridge, still smiling before she read. "'High Inquisitor will have supreme authority over all punishments and removal of privileges pertaining to the students of Hogwarts, and the power to alter such punishments and removals of privileges as may have been ordered by other staff members. Signed, Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, etc., etc.'" She smiled even wider. "So… I really think I will have to ban these two from playing Quidditch ever again."

"What?!" Sirius and Mia chorused in shock.

"Ban us?" Harry said in a distant voice.

"Forever?" George added.

"You can't do that!" Sirius said.

"Oh, yes, I can, Mr. Black," Umbridge countered. "I think a lifelong ban ought to do the trick. You, Mr. Weasley here and I think, to be safe, this young man's twin ought to be stopped, too – if his teammates had not restrained him, I feel sure he would have attacked young Mr. Malfoy as well."

"And Malfoy?" Mia asked.

"What about him?" Umbridge asked.

Mia narrowed her eyes. "He's provoked them – insulted their parents! I'd say if they're banned from the bloody team, he should be too or, at the very least, given a detention."

"Mr. Malfoy was assaulted by them – of course he won't be banned!" Umbridge replied angrily. "As for detention, that is up to Professor Snape."

Mia pursed her lips. "I'll see about that, then."

She turned to Sirius and smiled again. "I will want their broomsticks confiscated, of course; I shall keep them safely in my office, to make sure there is no infringement of my ban."

"Actually, you can't," McGonagall told her, recovered from the shock of before. "The school rules say that a student's personal property can only be confiscated in case they are either in the list of banned items or directly used in a serious violation of the school rules themselves. As Potter and the Weasleys didn't assault Malfoy with their broomsticks, you have no authority to confiscate them." She turned to Sirius, then. "I'll ask you, however, to take their broomsticks home to avoid temptation."

Sirius curled his lips in triumph. "Of course." Umbridge's shocked face was so worth the trouble. At least that way Harry and the twins knew their brooms were safe and could use them when they were back home for easter break.

"Very well, let it be," Umbridge spat minutes later, just as she made her out the door

Mia moved to follow seconds later.

"Wait, where are you going?" Sirius asked her.

"To take care of Malfoy," she replied, before glancing at Harry's long face. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't go without a punishment too."

He gave her a faint nod before she walked through the door, Sirius following her.

"Snivelus will never give him detention for provoking Harry," he told her just as the two stood outside of McGonagall's office.

"Maybe not for provoking Harry," Mia told him. "But he won't let him get away with calling Lily a 'filthy mudblood'." The way he'd begged for forgiveness in their fifth year after calling it to Lily… She knew he abhorred the word now – he'd even given detention to Malfoy back in Harry's second year just for using it at all. "Go back inside, Sirius. Harry and George are miserable now – you need to talk to them."

"That bitch had to take Quidditch away from him… if I'd been faster and stopped them."

"She'd have found another excuse," Mia told him, placing a hand on his shoulder for comfort. "You know what they say about DADA teachers – never last more than a year. Let's hope this year is not an exception."

---

Mia had been right about Snape. Though their conversation was short and tense, as soon as she'd told him what Malfoy had called Lily, the Slytherin's head had promised to 'take care of it'. Later, McGonagall had been pleased to tell Sirius about how Malfoy had been given a full whole week of detention to be served with her.

Harry and the twins' expulsion from the Quidditch team had shocked and angered a great number of Gryffindor who, even those who tended to label Harry a lunatic, stuck by their side.

The following day, a Saturday, Sirius and Mia had planned to spend a lazy day at home as Harry had told them not to ruin their weekend over what had happened in the game. But they didn't need that to ruin the weekend – no, the morning news were more than enough.

The breakfast was going rather calmly that Morning. Mia was brewing some tea while Alex sat on his high chair as Kreacher placed a plate of baby food in front of him. Immediately, to the house elf's frustration, instead of using the spoon he'd been given, the little boy chucked his tiny fist into the plate with a giggle.

"_No. Young master eat with spoon, not with hand_," Sirius heard Kreacher telling the baby in the background. "_Bad young master_."

In the moment Sirius opened the newspaper left by Kreacher on the kitchen table, however, he felt sick when being greeted by the picture of his far most hated cousin, among other Death Eaters.

"Son of bitch," he said under his breath as he read the headline.

_MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN _

If that was bad on itself, the article that followed was even worse…

_The Ministry of Magic announced late last night that there has been a mass breakout from Azkaban. _

_Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous nature of these individuals. _

"_We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in a very difficult position at the moment," said Fudge last night. __"We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals."_

_Two and a half years ago, Sirius Black was the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, only to be proven later that the fugitive had been innocently incarcerated for over a decade, paying for a crime committed by one of his supposed victims, Peter Pettigrew. Black was later given a full pardon and became, along with his wife, guardian of the already known mentally unstable Harry Potter. Though the method Black used in order to escape was never revealed to the public, the ministry has assured no dark magic was used._

"_We__ do not think the two breakouts are related," Minister Fudge affirms. "An escape of this magnitude, however, suggests outside help and we remind you all that Peter Pettigrew, a known murderer and Death Eater ever since Black was proven innocent, is still at large, despite our efforts.__We think it likely that these individuals have rallied around Pettigrew as their accomplice in the escape."_

_Among the fugitives are some of the most dangerous and unstable Death Eaters ever known, such as the Lestranges __– Rodolphus, Rabastan and Bellatrix (née Black) – and Antonin Dolohov. Fudge's advice is for the magical community to remain alert and cautious. "On no account should any of these individuals be approached if sighted."_

He just stared at the article frozen for several minutes. How the hell was that possible? Sure, he'd escaped but he was just one person, after all. One person that could turn into an animal. How on earth could the Dementors miss _ten_ people? The answer came easily: they hadn't, they'd actually _let_ them go. Their loyalties had shifted to Voldemort.

"What is it?" Mia asked him as she sat by the table, placing two cups of tea on it, one in front of him, other in front of herself.

"Ten death Eaters escaped Azkaban," he told her gravelly. "Bellatrix is one of them."

She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again, speechless. It took her several seconds to get her voice back. "H… how?"

"The only way I can think of is the Dementors being in You-Know-Who's hands," Sirius told her gravelly. "And Fudge is blaming it on Wormtail… like he's smart enough to plan a full-blown escape. He probably sat in a corner while the big boys did all the work. How can people be so dumb and still believe Voldemort's not back?"

Mia sighed. "People don't _want_ to believe it. They don't want the terror to be back again."

"But it will be back. Sooner or later it will – especially with all these sick bastards out of Azkaban. Merlin, Bella is probably the worst of them all. You know what she did to the Longbottoms."

She nodded quietly. "Maybe they'll get them."

"No, they won't," Sirius said. "They never got me."

"They didn't know you're animagus," Mia countered.

"And Voldemort is protecting them," he finished, looking down. "Just when we think things can't get worse than a war, they become a war with nearly every Death Eater that was already locked away."

Mia sighed. "They'll get even worse before they get close to get better, won't they?"

Sirius nodded silently.

"Sirius," she whispered, worried about his lack of words.

He took a deep breath. No, he couldn't let himself be defeated before the fight had even started. He glanced at his son, to see him struggling with the spoon in his hand to figure out how it was used and then looked up at Mia. He had a duty to his family and to himself. "But those bastards can get their arses ready because we'll make it worse for them too. Bella's will wish she's never left that hell of a prison."

"That's the Sirius I know and love," she said with a smile.

**A/N2: Well, I felt generous today and ended up updating _three_ days earlier (unfortunately, I can't do it often). Consider it a New Year's welcoming and a personal celebration about my future Easter holidays at Paris. I hope you liked the chapter... I rather liked to write this one. You may have noticed that I changed dates a bit but nothing major. Next chapter is in progress and will come at the usual rate. Send some feedback. Review!**


	49. Valentine

**Valentine's Day**

"So, what exactly did Hermione tell you yesterday?" Sirius asked his wife casually, waiting for her to finish getting ready for them to go out, supposedly to get some shopping done at Diagon Alley.

"_Not much_," Mia replied from the bathroom. _"She just asked for us to meet her and Harry at the Hogs Head by three this afternoon_."

He casually observed something in his hand that he'd just fetched to give Mia – it was Valentine's Day, after all. The woman deserved to be pampered for that day, no matter how messed up the world might be. "So, she really didn't say what they wanted us there for?" he asked before hiding it behind his back as he heard her walking back to the room.

"_No. Only that it was a plan she'd come up with for Harry's benefit_." She entered the room and grabbed her coat from a chair. Then, she looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "What are you hiding?"

He watched playfully the curious look on her face – he'd always got a kick out of watching her. And she did look really good that day, as always: all that brown hair, very slightly waved, falling loosely over shoulders – _so silky_, he thought, and how his fingers always itched to run over it –, her skin, pale but not in a sickly way, contrasting with it so wonderfully… the best part was that he knew he'd still adore her if she shaved her head and covered her body with blue paint.

"What is it?" she asked again, trying to peak and see what was behind his back.

Sirius took a step in her direction and showed her what he'd been hiding behind his back. A single red rose, which he used to touch her chin lightly. "Mrs. Black, will you be my Valentine today?"

She smiled. "Is that for me?"

"If you say 'yes', it is."

"Well, I guess it is a 'yes', then," Mia replied, still smiling softly as she got hold of the rose and smelled it. "Just because of the flower, obviously."

He chuckled. "Honey, I don't mind what it is for, just as long as you say 'yes'. Now, I can take you out for our muggle lunch date."

Mia raised an eyebrow. "Lunch date? Weren't we supposed to go to Diagon Alley to get you that broom polishing oil thing and the other Quidditch stuff you needed?"

Sirius snorted. "That was just an excuse to get you to be ready just in time. Why would I take Alex off to Elizabeth's if we could very well take him to Diagon Alley with us? No, Daddy wanted some time alone with Mummy so he could take her out… and snog her in dark alleys, maybe."

"Well, aren't you a plotting Valentine, Mr. Black?" she replied as he enveloped her waist with his arms. "Why lunch and not dinner, though? Not that I'm complaining."

"Well, for starters because I reckon all the restaurants will be packed for dinner tonight and none of us is a fan of very crowded places. Second, I figure that with all the unexpected stuff that has been coming up lately, we'd better get this done before anything happens all of a sudden. Merlin knows that this little meeting we have in Hogsmeade might end up in a big mess, considering the secrecy around it."

Mia smiled, looking at the rose she was holding, before wrapping her arms around his neck. "Well, I'd say those are two very valid reasons."

"Great. Then, we can seal the deal," he told her with a smile before kissing her lips very softly, feeling hers curl under his. She always tasted so sweet to him…

Mia pulled away a few seconds later, still smiling at him. "We'd better get going, don't you think? We only have three hours before we have to meet the kids at the Hog's Head."

"That's more than enough time, I'd say," he assured her.

She placed the rose in water and took his hand before they left the house together. It had been a few months since they'd had a real date with just the two of them, Mia thought. Between Alex, their jobs and all the trouble that surrounded their lives like a thick cloud, they rarely had any time to do it – not that they didn't like sneaking kisses and sometimes more at home and the school. But those dates were special: there were no interruptions and no worries then… and didn't Sirius tend to get extra romantic, if that was even possible?

They could have apparated directly in wherever place he'd planned to take them but instead, being a _muggle_ date, they took the tube and after a bunch of stations ended up in a little restaurant in the middle of St. James's Park. The green that surrounded them together with a rare sunny February day was the perfect match for their mood of the day.

"You know, I'm starting to think I made a decent choice by marrying you," Mia pointed out later as they ate desert. "Too bad for all those girls you went out with before me."

He shot her a grin. "Poor souls – they're lives are ruined for losing a catch as perfect as me." Sirius faked a sigh.

Mia raised an eyebrow. "Modesty, however, is very low on you."

He chuckled, before eating bit of his very fancy three-name flavour ice cream. "You knew about that long before you fell for me. In fact, you _love_ my lack of modesty. It gives me such character."

She smiled. "Sirius Black wouldn't be Sirius Black if he was prudish and meek. I guess because I love you, I also love your lack of modesty."

He grinned widely – deep down Sirius wondered if it was normal to feel all gooey in the inside, even after so many years together, by hearing her say that she loved him. _Who cares about normal, anyway?_ He thought. If in fifty years he was still able to look at her and feel butterflies in his stomach, he'd just thank Merlin and be happy with it. "I love every bit of you."

"I know. I love every bit of you too," Mia replied with a warm smile as he reached across the table to touch her hand. "So, what are your plans for the rest of this date?"

"Well, it's rather sunny outside, isn't it? We could take a walk through the park or around town before we need to leave to Hogsmeade." Sirius told her calmly, brushing his fingers absently on the back of her hand. "Unless you have plans of your own, I mean,"

She shook her head. "No, a walk sounds very nice." Walks with him always ended up becoming more than walks: a little stolen kiss here, a small detour to snog there, other little things… the man knew how to entertain a woman. "Wanna switch deserts now? I think I'm stuffed with this pie – need something different."

He chuckled. "Sure, why not?"

"Oh, by the way," Mia said as she reached for his ice cream. "I'm surprised and proud to notice that you, Mr. Black, still haven't tried to jump me today. So far, it's the second Valentine's Day in a row when you don't beg for some action. Some self control you have…"

He frowned. "Self control my arse! Last year doesn't count – Elizabeth, that dictator healer of yours, had forbidden us, remember? Because of the baby."

Mia snorted – he'd looked so pained from time to time because of it… "Poor you."

"Exactly – poor me! But this year I'm saving the jumping on you for later," Sirius told her.

"What about that 'better get it done soon or something will get in the way' philosophy?"

He smiled. "Love, unless a catastrophe happens – which I'm praying not to –, nothing will be strong enough to keep my hands away from you tonight. It will be memorable."

They left the restaurant a few minutes later and after taking a walk around the park, they continued it on the streets of London. At that time of the day, streets weren't very crowded, allowing them to walk hand in hand calmly and made some detours to one or two alleys in order to enjoy a good old snog.

It was little over one hour and a half after they'd left the restaurant that they reached Charing Cross and decided to drop by the Leaky Cauldron so they could apparate to Hogsmeade without the risk of being caught by muggles. However, just a couple of streets down from the pub, they unexpectedly saw Lulu… who happened to be holding hands in a very non-casual with a guy Mia recognized as Gabriel McKinnon with a bunch of glamour charms on, to remain his identity hidden from the world. The two were several yards ahead, oblivious to the fact that they were being watched.

Mia turned to Sirius with an eyebrow rose and he reflected the look – apparently, she wasn't the only one surprised by seeing her mother out with Gabe on Valentine's Day.

"Well, look at that," Sirius said with a grin. "They look pretty happy."

Her lips curled slightly. "Yeah, they do," she said under her breath. "Lulu's always thought Valentine's Day was big joke. I wonder how the hell Gabe got her to go out."

"You do mad things for love," Sirius said. "So, you're happy with it? Your mother dating… well, dating your father?"

Mia raised an eyebrow at him – he rarely referred Gabriel as her father, as their relationship was just the one of friends. But she understood his point this time. "You know I was expecting this to happen sooner or later. It was no secret she never got over him… or him her." She sighed. Knowing Lulu, Mia was pretty sure that if they saw her, they'd probably jump as far from each other as it was humanely possible. She knew Lulu would tell her about them when they were ready for it. "Well, we should probably get going."

"You're right," he agreed. "You know, I was thinking… Gabe will never get bored with her around, will he?"

Mia chuckled. "No, he most certainly won't."

---

They had time to drop by the three broomsticks to grab themselves a butterbeer and enjoy a short exchange of words with Kingsley, who was in charge of keeping an eye on the kids for the Order, before making their way to the Hog's Head.

It was disconcerting the number of students they found snogging on their way there – those kids took the occasion seriously, Mia thought. More seriously than she remembered them taking it on hers and Sirius's time. Of course, the two of them were always an exception.

They entered the pub to find it considerably less packed than the Three Broomsticks and the barman, who they knew to be Dumbledore's estranged brother, absently polishing glasses.

"Oh, bloody hell," Sirius mumbled when he noticed who Hermione was sitting with at the end of the pub. It had to be the least likely person he could ever imagine to see that day: Rita Skeeter.

It had been a while since they'd seen one of her articles anywhere – more specifically, since the end of the Triwizard Championship. Sirius imagined she would have been delighted to be part of the Daily Prophet's mission of trashing Harry and Dumbledore and wondered why on earth she wasn't doing it.

Hermione got up from the chair as soon she saw them and walked across the pub to meet them. Mia raised an eyebrow at the young girl as soon as she did. "Is that Rita Skeeter?"

"Hum, yeah. She's part of the plan," Hermione said, a bit nervously.

"Part of the plan?" Sirius asked in disbelief. "Skeeter?!"

"I promise she won't she won't pull anything on you," Hermione quickly said. "She really doesn't have much of a choice…"

"What does that mean?" he asked her.

Hermione coughed and looked around to check if any of the very few costumers was listening. "Well, at the end of last term, I discovered if bit of sensitive information on her."

"Sensitive information?" Mia asked.

"She's an unregistered animagus," the young girl whispered.

Sirius's face was of surprise. "No way."

"Really, she is," Hermione assured. "A beetle. Of course, I've used that information to incentive her to take an extended leave from her job at the Daily Prophet. She knows very well that if steps a toe out of the line, she'll be shipped to Azkaban before she can even fetch that horrid green quill of hers."

"You've been blackmailing her?!" Mia asked in shock – she wasn't sure if she should scold or praise Hermione for it, honestly.

"She's the one who started it," Hermione reminded her.

"That's just brilliant!" Sirius said. "You wouldn't mind if I threatened her with that too, would you? So many jokes…"

"Not at all," she replied. "Pity Ron isn't here – he'd like to help with that."

"Oh, where is he, anyway?"

Hermione sighed. "He's landed himself in detention with McGonagall. Brawled with Michael Corner from Ravenclaw when he found out he was taking Ginny on a date today."

Sirius's face fell. "Ginny's on a date?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah. It's nothing serious, really. Ron's just a git and got ridiculously protective. Ginny nearly hexed him. You should have seen Harry's face watching it – blank as a sheet." She gave Sirius a knowing look. "One would think he was scared of something."

_T__he poor kid must be terrified by now_… Sirius thought. That would only slow him down from taking the step and asking Ginny out. "I don't suppose he's gotten himself a date as well…"

She shook her head. "Last I saw him, he was at Honeyduke's with Luna, Izzy and George – Fred's taken Angelina out, I think."

"And speaking of Harry…" Mia said just as he entered the pub too and narrowed his eyes when he saw the reporter sitting at one of the tables.

"Not her again! What is _she_ doing here?!"

Hermione huffed and asked them to go ahead to the table while she explained Harry why Rita was there.

There, the woman gave them one of her very wide and acid smiles. "Well, well, the Blacks," Rita said. "Such an honour to have you sitting here with me."

"We wouldn't be sitting here if we didn't have to," Mia replied, glaring.

Skeeter glared back – she still hadn't forgotten when Mia had burned her previous notes of her interview with Harry at the beginning of the Tournament. "What matters is that you're here, isn't it?" She turned to Sirius. "Well, Sirius… I can call you Sirius, can't I? Oh, silly question of course I can. Lovely. Well, back to the point, you're quite the man of the moment ever since that mass breakout, aren't you?"

"Why, _Rita_, would I be the man of the moment because of it?" he replied, between annoyance and simple confusion.

"Oh, everyone is curious to find out how you've escaped Azkaban – you were the first to succeed, after all. If you gave me the exclusive, I might write it nicely for you," Rita suggested, batting her eyelashes and shooting him a charming smile.

"I was under the impression you had taken a rather _forced_ leave of absence," Mia pointed out.

Rita straightened herself up on the chair. "I'm sure Her Highness would give me a break to help. It's just a little exclusive, no harm at all."

Sirius faked a smile back at her. He'd give her the exclusive… "Well, if that makes you happy." He gave a long sigh. "I asked the Dementors nicely. See, those blokes are all honey in the inside… so misunderstood. They'll do anything for you if you're polite. You should keep that in mind, in case we ever land you there in a flask like a tiny little… what's the name of the insect I want to say? … Ah, beetle. Like a tiny little beetle, Skeeter."

Rita, who had been searching for her quill in her crocodile-skin purse, stopped and narrowed her eyes. "Well, that was just unnecessary. A person offers…"

"Stop bugging them or the deal's off and that's a promise," Hermione said irritably as she and Harry joined them by the table.

"What deal?" Rita replied. "You haven't mentioned a deal yet, Miss Prissy, you just told me to turn up. Oh, one of these days…" She took a deep shuddering breath.

"Yes, yes, one of these days you'll write more horrible stories about Harry and me like you did last year," Hermione replied indifferently. "Find someone who cares, why don't you?"

"By the time that green quill of yours finishes writing the article, you'll be saying hello to your new neighbours the Big House," Sirius added, amused. Oh, he could sit there all day long cracking 'you're going to Azkaban' jokes. The best part of it, he concluded, was that the chilling feeling he usually got whenever mentioning the orison was gone.

The blonde pursed her lips. "They don't need me at the Daily Prophet to run horrible stories on Harry this year," said Rita, shooting a look at him. "How has that made you feel, Harry? Betrayed? Distraught? Misunderstood?"

"Frustrated actually," Harry replied. "Because Fudge is either too much of an idiot or too much or a coward to believe Voldemort is actually back."

Rita shuddered at the mention of the name, nearly choking on the firewhiskey she's just sipped but quickly recomposed herself. "So you actually stick to it, do you, that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back? You stand by all this garbage Dumbledore's been telling everybody about You-Know-Who returning and you being the sole witness?"

"I wasn't the sole witness. There were a dozen-odd Death Eaters there as well. Want their names?"

"I'd love them," she said, her eyes shining dreamily before she started a ramble, imagining the headlines for the article with Harry accusing respected members of the wizarding society of being Death Eaters which, she concluded at some point, Hermione would never allow her to post.

They were all shocked and speechless, however, when Harry's friend said exactly the opposite: she wanted Harry's story running out there.

Of all them, Sirius was the first to regain his voice. "Hermione, are you… are you mad?! You want _her_ to tell the world what Harry says about You-Know-Who? _Her?_"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Rita asked Sirius in an offended tone.

"Clearly that you are a nosy, sensationalistic and liar of a reporter," Mia replied frankly. Oh, how annoying was that woman? Why bother holding her tongue – she was sick of doing it around Umbridge, anyway.

Hermione sighed and explained that hardly any other reporter would be willing to write that story – Rita was their only chance to let people know the whole thing, what they were about to fight against. She looked at Sirius and Mia again. "I've asked you two to come because he needs your consent to give this interview. She can't do much harm when she knows what we know."

Rita huffed on the background. "One of these days…"

"Oh, shut it," Sirius told her, out of patience for her rambling.

Mia didn't look so pleased with the deal but she turned to her godson. "It's up to you, Harry. Do you want to do this?"

He nodded without hesitation. "Hermione's right. People need to have the chance of learning what they're fighting against. Even if they all think I've lost my marbles."

_Always noble_, Mia thought. She turned to Rita, then. "You'll write the true story. The facts exactly as Harry reports them. He'll give you all the details, he'll tell you the names of the undiscovered Death Eaters he saw and he'll tell you what Voldemort looks like now."

"And you'll write every name he says in the article," Sirius added. "Make sure you highlight Malfoy's, by the way. With an illustrative picture with Cissy in it. I'm sure they'll just be delighted."

"The Prophet will never print it," Rita stated, nonchalant.

"We've got that covered too," Hermione informed her. "The father of a friend of ours is the editor of a magazine and he's agreed to publish this as soon as you have it ready. You will send the article to me and I'll redirect it to the Quibbler."

"The Quibbler? You think people will take him seriously if he's published in The Quibbler?!"

"I'd rather be published there than in that daily trash people call a newspaper," Harry countered.

"And let's talk seriously," Sirius added, "these days the Quibbler has much less bull than the Prophet. Their version of the Azkaban breakout was just ridiculous. Anyone who knew Pettigrew and with half a brain knows he'd grow wings and fly before he'd ever command a massive breakout of Azkaban on his own. Too much of a wimp."

"All right, let's say for a moment I'll do it," she said abruptly, facing Hermione. "What kind of fee am I going to get?"

Hermione laughed. "How about nothing? Or else, I'll have to inform the proper authorities that you are an illegal animagus."

"Of course, you can always win some money by writing a book on life in Azkaban from an insider's point of view," Mia pointed out.

Rita looked like she wanted to strangle all of them. "I don't suppose I've got any choice, have I? Will I at least get a quote from the distressed guardians of Harry Potter?"

"You want a quote? I'll give you a bloody quote," Sirius told her irritably. "Get that quill ready 'cause I'm saying it now: 'Kiss my a…'"

"Sirius!" Mia and Harry shouted at the same time, wide eyed before he could finish it.

"She's asked for a quote," he told them innocently. "I'm just providing it for her."

"Yes and we both know she has more than enough nerve to publish it with highlights!" Mia stated. Rita smiled, confirming she would. "Scratch that or the parchment will burn like last time!" Mia warned her.

The blonde showed her sharp teeth but did as she was said and began firing questions away at Harry under their scrutiny.

The interview lasted roughly an hour and after it was finished Sirius and Mia made question of getting as far from Rita as it was possible, apparating back home after quickly telling Harry goodbye.

Sirius sighed as they walked up the stairs. "I'll confess that Rita compared to Umbrige is as delightful as a baby laugh."

"Well, yeah, you have a point there," Mia agreed. "There isn't much we can compare to Umbridge, really. Unless we're talking about typed of poison, that is."

"And the best part of this meeting: it didn't ruin our day, after all. I'd say Harry being able to tell his story makes up for Rita," Sirius announced triumphantly before he looked back and gave her a seductive look. "Which means, maybe we'll be able to start those plans I had for tonight a bit earlier."

"Ah, and what were those plans again?" she asked, faking confusion just they reached the floor of their room. "Because I can't seem to rememb… wow," she said as he suddenly scooped her off her feet. "What was that for?"

"It's hard to put in words my plans for you," he explained, carrying her into the room. "How about I show you instead?"

She let out a sigh. "Ah, well, if you really have to…"

"I really think I do," Sirius assured her before he used his feet to close the door behind them and gently placed her on the bed before lowering his mouth to hers, a breath apart. "And I don't think you'll be disappointed, Mrs. Black."

**A/N: The interview with Rita... one of my favourite parts of the book. Anyway, one more chapter for you. Only a handful (alright, a really full handful) before we jump into the next volume... I hope you enjoyed this one... it certainly was a nice to write. Feedback is very welcome, as always. Review!**


	50. Caught

The Quibbler issue with Harry's interview came out in the beginning of March and on the very same day it was made available and sold out, Umbridge confiscated every issue she could find in the school and had Fudge writing a decree saying that if anyone was found with it, they'd be expelled. Little did she know that people always found ways to smuggle the magazine into school or keep it hidden in the most creative ways.

As Hermione had predicted, ever since the article was published, the environment in school improved drastically for Harry. People called him a liar or an attention-junkie anymore – some had even apologized. That along with the occlumency classes taught by Dumbledore himself, which had helping keeping the nightmares away, made him believe things were turning for better… that was, despite Umbridge giving him detentions for anything including breathing 'too loud'.

Days passed and, by the end of the first week of March, bad news came: Umbridge had sacked the first teacher, Trelawney. It wasn't much of a surprise, as the woman had done dreadfully in her inspection but it did shatter the illusion that teachers couldn't be touched. To nearly everyone's relief, before the ministry could appoint a new spy for a teacher, Dumbledore had hired Firenze, one of the centaurs from the forest that Harry had met in his first year.

Time kept passing and April arrived, bringing another DA meeting. These days, the Room of Requirement had even more people than it used to before as a bunch of the students who used to think Harry was mad had joined the group.

That meeting, Harry announced he would continue teaching them the Patronus Charm, after he's given them the basics in the end of the previous lesson. He'd always be thankful to Moony, who, in his book, had been the best of all DADA teachers, for having taught him that charm.

By the middle of the lesson, as expected, only a few were succeeding in conjuring Patronuses.

"This bloody thing is hard," Izzy nearly growled, shaking her wand in frustration as, for tenth time, the pale silver smoke coming out of her wand wouldn't get a clear form.

Ginny's smoke seemed to a bit more dense and to be growing two pairs of legs but it lasted only a few seconds. "I can't believe Harry's mastered this in his third year." She huffed and lowered her wand before turning to Izzy. "Speaking of him, Dean Thomas has asked me to go on a date with him this weekend in Hogsmeade."

Izzy raised an eyebrow. "What does that have to do with Harry at all?"

"I'll get there, don't worry," Ginny told her with a grin. "Like I was saying, Dean has asked me out. I had to turn him down, though, because I'm not going to Hogsmeade."

Izzy's face turned abruptly to her friend with eyebrows rose. "You're not? Why not?"

"Because Umbridge has forbidden Harry from going out at Hogsmeade weekends when she found out about the interview," she explained. "And I happen to have plans for a date with him. See now how Dean asking me out had to do with Harry?"

Izzy's eyes opened wide. "Wait. Rewind a bit! Since when do you have plans for a date with Harry? Wait… does he know about it at all?"

Ginny shook her head. "Not yet. As that git godbrother of yours won't ask me – not even when I was rubbing Michael Corner on his face! –, I'll have to take matters in my own hands."

"And when exactly are you going to ask him?" Izzy asked, still surprised.

"Eventually… maybe about ten to twenty minutes before the date – I'm counting on the surprise element for him to bee too stunned to refuse. Plus, it won't give Ron much time to be an arse."

Her friend looked at her in disbelief. "This is one of those moments when I think you're mental. But what the hell are you going to do in a date inside Hogwarts, anyway?"

"It's a big place – I'm sure we'll find stuff to do. You should start thinking of getting yourself a date as well, Iz. The last time you went out on one, it was the Yule ball with Ron."

Izzy made a face. "That was hardly a date – he spent the whole time fuming over Hermione and didn't even dance with me. And for the record, I already have a date – Justin Finch-Fletchley. He's asked me before the meeting."

"Justin Finch-Fletchley? You don't even know him!"

"Well, after the date I will."

Ginny narrowed her eyes. "And _you_ call me mental."

Before Izzy could say anything, they heard someone coughing behind them and turned to see one of the twins – it was odd just seeing one of them. "Well, well, well, girls, slacking on the training to talk about boys? Mom would bend you over her knee for this, Gin-Gin."

"No, she wouldn't," Ginny replied. "But she would do it to you if she knew you and Fred are using the first years to test your products, George."

"But you won't tell her because we're your favourite brothers. And what makes you think I'm George?"

She chuckled. "Because if you're Fred, then George is hitting on your girlfriend as we speak." She pointed at a corner where one of the twins was whispering something on Angelina's ear, making her laugh as she tried to cast the Patronus charm. "See?"

"Well, that bastard! I shall place puking pastilles in his breakfast tomorrow! It won't be pretty."

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Cut the chase – we know you're George. Fred is better at lying than you are, anyway."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "First, that's not true – I lie just as brilliantly as he does. Second, one would think my sister and the daughter of a Marauder would have a better sense of humour."

"We have a good sense of humour – you just can't face the truth," Izzy corrected him with a grin. "What do you want, anyway?"

"Well, Fred there is trying to convince Angie to help him check the interior of broom cupboard after this meeting is over so I kindly thought of coming here and grace you with my presence."

"Oh, we're not worthy," Ginny said dramatically. "Anyway, did you manage to cast a Patronus already?"

He shook his head. "Our fearless leader over there makes it look easy. At least one of you won't be dating a wimp."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Izzy asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Look at Finch-Fletchley," George told her, nodding at the boy, who seemed to be stressing over his wand to a point of tears. "First of all, his name is weird to say with the hyphen in the middle. Second, he's already been to the Hospital Wing five times this term for stressing over the OWLs."

"People have a right to give in to stress sometimes!"

"Five times in a term is a little more than 'sometimes'," Ginny had to agree with her brother.

George faked a sighed. "But I'm sure your date will be great – just make sure you take a big enough skirt so he can hide under it when he has another breakdown. Then, you'll be covered."

"Oh, shut up," Izzy said, annoyed mostly because he sort of had a point. "It's not like I'm going to marry him or anything." But she considered finding an excuse to cancel the date. "Now, excuse me, I have a Patronus to conjure."

She turned her back to George and Ginny and grabbed her wand. Izzy tried to clear her mind of the stupid date, which, to her own annoyance, took longer than it should have.

Then, she made an effort to concentrate and to think of happy memories – seeing her father for the first time, her parents getting married, her baby brother being born… And the smoke that came out of her wand was thicker than before and it seemed to be struggling to grow four legs. Izzy grinned for a moment but it started to vanish before she could really get what it was. She turned to George and Ginny. "What was it? Did you see what it was?"

"I think… I think it was your dad," the prankster replied with chuckle.

She frowned in confusion. "My dad? He doesn't have four legs!"

"Oh, you didn't notice the other pair?" George replied jokingly.

"He means his Animagus form, genius!" Ginny told her with a laugh.

"Hum… I guess you're right, then," she mumbled. "I sort of looked a bit like…" Izzy stopped talking when they heard the Room of Requirement's room opening and closing and everything suddenly falling dead silent. Seconds later, over all the silence, Harry's voice came in hushed tones talking with another squeaky, trembling one.

What's was going on? She took slow steps towards the middle of the room, where Harry stood, as the few Patronuses that some students had managed to conjure faded slowly into silvery mist, which made the whole environment much darker. By her godbrother's side there was a house-elf whom she recognized as Dobby, who'd caused all that trouble in her first year.

"Harry Potter… she… she…" the elf was stuttering before oddly punching himself on the nose, punishing himself for being unable to finish.

Izzy shivered. She'd never gotten used to house elves doing that – one of the first things her mother had ordered Kreacher to do when they'd moved into Grimmauld Place nearly five years ago had been for to never use self-punishment. And, mirroring Mia's past actions, she watched as Harry grabbed Dobby's arm to stop him from punching himself again

"Who's 'she', Dobby?" There was a pause when Harry looked thoughtful. "Umbridge?" he asked, horrified.

Dobby nodded and then tried to bang his head on Harry's knees, nearly sobbing. Harry bent and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Stop it! What about her?" He paused again. "She hasn't found out about this… about us… about the D.A.? Is she coming?"

But everyone in the room knew the answer before the elf confirmed it to Harry verbally. And everyone also froze, Izzy included. They were in trouble. They were _so_ in trouble!

"What are you waiting for?" Harry shouted at everyone. "_RUN_!"

And the panic started. Everyone pushed their way to the door at the same time, causing a huge mess, people falling and only few exiting at a time. From her place, Izzy noticed Colin Creevy dragging his younger brother, Dennis, who kept falling, with his frantic movements.

"Izzy! Gin!" She heard Harry shouting at her and Ginny, who had, at some point, joined her again. Izzy turned her head and saw him running to them. "Don't go back to the dorm. Hide in the library!"

"You're coming too!" Ginny demanded.

He shook his head. "Only after everyone leaves. I'll meet you in a few minutes, okay? Go there – it's just half past eight in the evening – nobody will suspect you from being at the library. Go!"

But before they did, right in front of Izzy's eyes, Ginny reached for Harry and kissed him right on the lips. Just like that. It didn't last endless seconds but it was enough to leave him behind stunned as they started their run towards the door. "You had to do that _now_?!" Izzy shouted at her friend.

"I saw a chance – I took it!" Ginny replied.

They managed to reach the library a few minutes later without being caught and then, they waited for Harry. But minutes and minutes passed and he didn't come.

Then, they knew he'd been caught.

----

Sirius and Mia had been having a pretty good time until they'd received Dumbledore's urgent message that night.

Alex had been sleeping, they'd had more clothes off than on and their lips were very far from being apart… until Dumbledore's phoenix had arrived. And though Mia resented the ruddy bird, as soon as she'd read the note telling them to come to Hogwarts ASAP, she'd felt a weight in her heart. Something very wrong was going on.

They walked along the school's corridors in a run and reached Dumbledore's office in record time – crowding the secret passage that lead to the headmaster's office there were several Slytherin students – Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson and others – that openly belonged to the Inquisitorial Squad. Whatever was happening, Umbridge was certainly in it.

On their way up the staircase to Dumbledore's office, they passed a weepy Ravenclaw student that Mia recognized as Cho Chang's best friend Marietta Edgecombe, whose face seemed to be covered with acne spelling the word 'Snitch'. She was being accompanied by Percy Weasley downstairs, who didn't even bother to acknowledge them.

As soon as they reached the office, Sirius and Mia found it packed with people. Dumbledore stood behind his desk, looking calmly at a red faced Umbridge, a nervous Harry with McGonagall by his side and a very offended-looking Fudge, flanked by two aurors: one they didn't recognize and Kingsley, who shot them an alarming look.

"What is going on?" Mia asked in a loud tone.

Fudge turned his face to them and pursed his lips angrily. "What's going on, Professor Black, is that we've found out about your godson's personal militia."

"We're not a militia!" Harry shouted. "We weren't even breaking any _school_ rules, we just…"

Umbridge turned to him sharply, raising her wand slightly. "Shut up, Potter, before I…"

Sirius got hold of his own wand. "Point your wand at him, _Professor_, and you will see what I can do with mine."

"Black," Kingsley warned him under his breath. "Lower your wand. This isn't the time or place."

Mia touched his arm, only imagine in how much trouble he'd get if he hexed a ministry official. "Sirius," she whispered.

"Mine isn't going down until hers does," he replied.

McGonagall coughed. "Dolores, for Merlin's sake," she told the spy.

Umbridge gave Fudge a glance, who responded with a nod and then, her wand came down, as did Sirius's.

"So what's this 'militia' madness?" Mia asked. "Minister, you can't honestly believe a fifteen year boy would create some sort of… armed force."

"Oh, but he did," Fudge spat. "You don't even know what sort of scallywag you've been raising."

"Don't you call my son that!" Mia warned him, feral. She gave Harry a glance and, seeing his nervous face, reassured him. "He's a good boy. Any parent would be proud to have him!"

"So you say!"

"Why don't you cut the crap and go on?" Sirius suggested, also edgy. "I'd love to hear that conspiracy theory of yours. Muggles have committed people to the loony bit for less than that."

The minister shot daggers with his eyes but didn't respond, Instead, he looked at Umbridge. "Dolores."

The woman smiled sadistically – she was enjoying the commotion. "Yes," she said. "Miss Edgecombe tipped me off about this 'meeting' and I proceeded at once to the seventh floor, accompanied by certain trustworthy students, so as to catch those red-handed. It appears that they already knew of our arrival because when we reached the seventh floor they were running in every direction."

"Any idea who warned them?" Fudge asked

Umbridge shook her head, to Harry's relief – Dobby was safe, then. "Unfortunately, Potter is the only one we managed to catch when he was running away. Miss Parkinson went into the room to search and found what I believe used to be a list of members on the board. Sadly, it is ripped – someone must have taken the rest – and we've only got the header and a bit of Potter's name in it," she withdrew from her pocket a ripped piece of parchment that used to be the top of the list and handed it to Fudge. "That is all there was left of it. The moment I saw it, I knew what we were dealing with."

"So, a group of kids were gathered in a room," Sirius concluded. "I could name you about twenty different reasons for it. What says they weren't having, I dunno, a birthday party? Or maybe a friendly tournament of exploding snap?"

"Black, how stupid do you think we are?" Fudge asked.

"I'm not sure there is a word to classify just how much, Minister," Sirius replied. "Enormously is the closest I can think of."

Dumbledore coughed. "Sirius, let's leave the insult trading for later, shall we? I think we all are curious to find out where this is leading."

Fudge pursed his lips for the fifth time at least and took a moment to read the ripped piece or parchment that Umbridge had given him as she smiled. "Oh… by the thunder…" He looked up at Dumbledore and clutched his wand in his hand. "See what they've named themselves? Dumbledore's Army."

Dumbledore reached out and took the piece of parchment from Fudge. Then he looked up, smiling. "Well, the game is up," he said simply, sitting back. "Would you like a written confession from me, Cornelius, or will a statement before these witnesses suffice?"

Sirius and Mia looked at each other, confusion all over their faces. There was just no way, none at all, Dumbledore was behind that defence association created by Harry all those months ago. They _knew_ it had been the kids' idea. Was Dumbledore selfless enough to let himself take the blame?

"Statement?" said Fudge slowly. "What… I don't…?"

"Albus, you can't be serious!" McGonagall said in surprise.

"_Dumbledore_'s Army," Dumbledore said, still smiling as he waved the ripped piece of parchment before Fudge's face. "Not Potter's Army."

"_No_!" Harry shouted. "No! Professor Dumbledore…!"

"Harry, it's not worth keeping this up," Dumbledore told him calmly. "You were only being faithfully to me and to this school."

In a way, Mia thought, Dumbledore seemed to be pleased with Harry's rebellion. It was as if he was… thanking him. Several uncomfortable minutes followed, during which the headmaster made up before their very eyes an incredibly elaborated lie that not only set off Fudge's biggest fears of a conspiracy against his ruling but also cleared Harry of nearly all responsibility in 'a ploy to take the minister down'.

The whole toom remained silent, stunned, after Dumbledore was finished. Sirius and Mia were certain that if they hadn't known the truth beforehand, they would have fallen straight into the lie. It was Fudge who broke the silence, please with the turn of events.

"Very well. Albus Dumbledore, you will now be escorted back to the Ministry, where you will be formally charged with High Treason, then sent to Azkaban to await trial!"

"Ah," Dumbledore said calmly. "Yes, I thought we might hit that little problem."

"Problem?" Fudge asked, his voice vibrating with joy from seeing the headmaster out of his way. "I see no problem at all, Dumbledore!"

"Well," Dumbledore told him apologetically, getting up. "I'm afraid I do. You seem to be labouring under the delusion that I am going to… what is the expression? Come quietly? I am afraid I am not going to come quietly at all, Cornelius. I have absolutely no intention of being sent to Azkaban."

Fudge stared at Dumbledore with a very stunned expression on his face and Umbridge's face was so red that Sirius thought – hoped – it might blow up any minute.

"So," Fudge said nearly mockingly, "you intend to take on Dawlish, Shacklebolt, Dolores and myself single-handed, do you, Dumbledore?"

"Merlin's beard, no," said Dumbledore, smiling, "not unless you are foolish enough to force me to."

"I'd like to see that," Sirius whispered to Mia – in the middle of it all, the whole trouble was worth that terrified look on Fudge's plump face.

"Enough of this rubbish!" The minister shouted. "Dawlish! Shacklebolt! Take him!"

And then everything was a blur. There had been a streak of silver light, several bangs and sounds of breaking glass, people shouting and then… Fudge, Umbridge, Kingsley, and Dawlish lay motionless on the floor.

"Are you all alright?" Dumbledore asked, still calmly.

"Hum, yes," Mia said, a bit confused. "Professor, how did you…"

"Ah, a trick I have learned with my long years of life, Amelia," Dumbledore informed her. "Do apologize to Kingsley for me? I had to hex him or it would be suspicious. He was a great help by changing Miss Edgecombe's memories before. The lie might have not worked if he hadn't."

Sirius stared at the unconscious ministry officials. "What are you going to do with them now? Lock them in the dungeons?"

"No, Sirius. I'm afraid this is my time to make an exit."

"But, Albus…" McGonagall started to protest.

The headmaster shook his head. "It is necessary. But worry not – I'll be in contact. You need to look after this school now, Minerva. It is likely you won't be appointed my successor but keep an eye open on the sidelines because this is about to get worse." Then, he nodded at the unconscious bodies. "Now, they will all awake very soon and it will be best if they don't know that we had time to communicate. You must act as though no time has passed, as though they were merely knocked to the ground. They will not remember."

Harry rose from his chair, looking down. "Professor, I… I'm sorry…"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Don't apologize, Harry. I knew about that group of yours from the beginning – if I didn't believe it was a brilliant idea, I'd have put a stop to it. But listen to me, Harry," he said urgently. "You must continue to train Occlumency as hard as you can, do you understand me? Practice it every night before sleeping like I thought you. Remember, close your mind."

Dawlish stirred just as the headmaster finished and then Fawkes circled the office and reached Dumbledore, who raised his hand and grasped the phoenix's tail. There was a flash of fire and the pair of them were gone.

"Where is he?" Fudge shouted, his face red as a tomato as he pushed himself up from the floor. "Where is he?"

"He… he just vanished," Mia lied smoothly, faking surprise.

"Was here just a second ago," Sirius added, mimicking his wife's acting. "How did he do that?"

"Well, he can't have Disapparated!" cried Umbridge. "You can't do it from inside this school!"

"The stairs!" Dawlish shouted and flung himself upon the door, followed closely by Kingsley.

Fudge's face wasn't as red as before. His expression was somewhere between pleased for having Dumbledore out of his way and frustrated for not being able to lock him in a cell. "Well, Dolores," he said. "I believe it is the best if you replace Dumbledore as Headmistress from now on."

The triumphant smile on the woman's face sickened Sirius, Mia, Harry and McGonagall. Now, they were in for hell, without a doubt. None of them could imagine how bad it might be.

The new headmistress illustrated the promotion by moving behind Dumbledore's desk and taking a seat on his chair… like an evil queen. Pleased with herself, she cleared her throat. "Well, shall I take my first action as such now?" She turned to face Sirius and Mia, her eyes full of joy. "You two…" Umbridge took a small pause for the suspense and smiled sweetly at them. "You're fired."

**A/N: I bet you were not expecting this... Things are getting pretty gloomy now and with Umbridge leading the school... even worse. Next chapter will pick up from here, don't worry. i have a very busy week ahead - wish me luck finding time to write. But even even if I have to spend a whole night doing it, you'll have next chapter at least in a week. Send some feedback. Review!**


	51. Sacked

"You're fired," Umbridge's voice echoed in the room, chilling them all to the bone.

There were a few seconds when nobody said anything, just staring at the woman's face in disbelief. Fired. That word didn't even make that much sense in Sirius's mind, after repeating it for the… what? Hundredth time?

"This is impossible!" McGonagall jumped in their defence. "You can't fire two teachers without a cause, _Dolores_! Not even as headmistress!" She turned to Fudge. "I believe there still isn't a decree that allows you to fire staff over a personal grudge! Cornelius, you certainly can't allow this – this game of yours is turning a fine education institution into a circus!"

Fudge coughed and refused to meet her eyes. "I believe Dolores must have a good reason to want Mr. and Mrs. Black out of the school. Don't you, Dolores?"

Umbridge gritted her teeth, seemingly caught by surprise. "Why, certainly! I… I believe they… they shouldn't be allowed to teach their own daughter and ward. That will obviously lead to favouritism!"

"What?!" Mia and Sirius echoed in disbelief.

"That's mad!" Harry shouted, shooting up. "Aunt Mia has never made things even slightly easier for me or Izzy in her classes! She's a good teacher! Treats everyone the same""

"Sit _down_ and be quiet, Potter," Umbridge snarled before turning her face to Fudge. "Potter's opinion is clearly biased by the connection, Cornelius. Surely you can't take it under consideration. It is obvious they would favour their own!"

"Of course, of course," Fudge accepted.

Mia fumed. "Then how the hell do you explain firing Sirius, who doesn't teach our kids at all?! Flying lessons are for first years only and, in case you've forgotten, you've kicked Harry out of the Quidditch team, so no partial refereeing either."

"Well, we don't need a teacher for a position that no longer exists," Umbridge informed her with a sick smile. "That's right. I'm eliminating the position of Quidditch Coach and referee. It is simply superfluous. I believe the first years simply don't need flying lessons – if they want to know how to fly, I believe there are external classes they can sign into during their summer break. And certainly another member of the staff will be more than willing to referee the games."

"That's a bunch of rubbish!" Sirius shouted angrily. "You just want us out of your way to mess with Harry as you like!"

"Mr. Black, watch your tone, please," Fudge said quietly.

"You can put the tone where the sun doesn't shine," Sirius told him with a glare.

"That is enough!" Umbridge shouted. "Insulting everyone won't make you any less fired, Mr. Black," she said with satisfaction.

McGonagall pursed her lips at that before voicing her thoughts. "Quite a manoeuvre you've arranged to have two of the best members of this school's staff fired, _Dolores_. But tell me, who will you find to replace Amelia as the History of Magic teacher in such short notice?"

For a moment, the new headmistress's face was blank and everyone saw she hadn't thought of that. Then, the victorious smile returned. "That is my business to solve, isn't it? Not yours to care about, Minerva." She cleared her throat and turned to Sirius and Mia. "The two of you can go to your offices and pack whatever you have there. You have an hour to do it. Then, Mr. Filch will walk you out of school grounds and you are not to return unless you are called. As for you, Mr. Potter, be in my office for detention by five in the afternoon for the rest of the week," Umbridge continued. "You can all go."

"Actually, I have something to say first," Sirius told her, taking a step in the desk's direction and leaning so his eyes met hers as coldly as he could manage. "Mark my words. One day, for some reason that I am sure will be more than legitimate, you will be sent to Azkaban and, one day, I will make the courtesy of going back to that place just so I can stand in front of your cell and laugh at how _pathetic_ you've become."

The woman's eyes were wide open and her words came out as a yell. "Get out!"

He pulled back, satisfied with himself and made his way back to Mia. She glared coldly at the new headmistress just as badly as he had. "I'm crossing my fingers for the DADA teacher's curse to strike again. Ten times more badly that it ever has."

_That's my woman,_ Sirius thought, circling her tense shoulders with his arm before he turned his face to his godson. "Come along, kid."

Harry, still a bit pale, got up and followed Sirius to the door, passing as his godfather held the door open for him, Mia and McGonagall, who apparently was done with Umbridge as well, to pass. He was about to close it when he stopped himself and peeked inside again. "By the way, if you hurt any of those kids – mine or anyone else's –, you'll be sorry." And then he closed the door with a loud bang, making something crack in the inside.

"Sirius, Aunt Mia, I… I'm so sorry," Harry apologized several minutes later, when they were about to part ways: Harry and McGonagall to the Gryffindor tower, Sirius and Mia to their offices. "This is all my fault!"

"No," Mia said, shaking her head. "Harry, it's not."

"…if I hadn't been caught and Dumbledore hadn't taken the blame…"

"It would have happened sooner or later," Sirius told him. "Remember this is Umbridge we're talking about. She would have found an excuse to get us out of her way, kid."

McGonagall agreed. "Unfortunately, your godfather is right, Potter. And I'm afraid I will be the next in line for her, since I don't deny that my loyalties are to Albus."

"It's just disgusting," Mia said, angrily. "What the ministry is doing to this school, to you, Harry, is just sick. All because that coward Fudge is trying to cover his arse. So, don't even think that this is remotely your fault, Harry James Potter."

He sighed. "But what are you going to do now?"

"Well, we didn't exactly need these jobs for the money," Sirius said with a sigh. "I suppose we'll wait until the end of the term before thinking of switching back careers. Like your godmother's said before, we hope the DADA curse hits her badly this year." He could swear for a moment that McGonagall's expression was of hope when she heard those words.

Mia let out a sigh and tried to calm herself down a little, griping her own upper arms with her hands. "You should go back to your dorm now, Harry. If you need to talk to us, you know how to do it." And then, she reached to give Harry a hug, using the opportunity to whisper something. "I won't ask you to sit quiet while she treats you like something below human, Harry. But whatever you do, be careful."

She felt him nod against her shoulder and pulled away, a little more relived, though not a bit less angry at Umbridge and Fudge. She bit her lower lip in frustration as Sirius gave Harry a bloke-hug, apparently whispering something to him too.

McGonagall let out a breath. "I honestly hope this matter is solved soon but, in any case, it was an honour working with you. Unpredictably so in some ways," she said, giving Sirius the same look she used to give him when he got in trouble with James, "but still an honour." She turned around to walk away and Harry said a quick 'bye' to them before following her and then the two were gone.

"Come on," Sirius told his wife quietly. "You look like you need s break. And I guess I do too."

She shook her head. "I can't… I just can't believe she…"

"Me neither," he told her.

It took an amazing amount of self-control for him not to turn on his heels and go back there to curse the living out of Umbridge and Fudge. However, he just couldn't resist making a detour when he and Mia were near the DADA classroom and office.

"S… Sirius! What are you doing?! This isn't the right way!" Mia asked as she followed him. "Wait, where are you going?" But the question answered itself in her mind as soon as her eyes landed on the door that led to Umbridge's classroom. And she grabbed her husband's arm, making him turn to her.

"Mia, you won't be able to talk me out of this," Sirius warned.

She shook her head. "Believe me, I won't try to talk you out of it. Just tell me… how much will it piss her off?"

"She'll be pulling her hair off once she finds out," he promised her and she let go of his arm, her lips curling so slightly it was barely noticeable. But Sirius pulled her back and kissed her lips passionately and, for a moment, just a moment, he felt his anger towards Umbridge draining away. "Why don't you go ahead to your office and I'll meet you there?" he asked in a whisper when their lips came apart. "It won't take long."

---

When Harry entered the Gryffindor common room, nearly all eyes fell on him. Every member of the D.A. that bekinged to his house circled him, popping all sorts of questions from 'were you expelled?' to 'when and where's the next meeting?'. It was absolute madness with everyone talking at the same time – at some point, he stopped being able to list to tell the voices apart.

"Alright, everyone shut up!" he clearly heard Ginny yelling over all the voices. "Let him speak!"

After that, nobody dared to open their mouths and breathe a word and he gave Ginny a thankful look, in between his embarrassment. That kiss had completely mashed up his brains, as great as it might have felt... He tried to brush the thoughts out of his head and cleared his throat. "You're all clear – Umbridge doesn't know who belonged to the D.A. other than me," he announced. "And no, I wasn't expelled for it but I don't think we should have any meetings for the time being. You'll know the rest soon enough."

The loud voices returned as soon as he finished, though this time they weren't directed to him. The general feeling of relief and the distraction, allowed Harry to use the opportunity to sneak away from the crowd.

As expected, Ron and Hermione were waiting for him right outside the crowd, this time along with Ginny and Izzy.

"What happened?" Hermione asked immediately. "You look like she's done something bad."

Ginny grunted. "Of course she'd done something bad – it's Umbridge!"

He nodded. "Let's go to my dorm – there's too many people here."

In their eagerness to find out what had happened, it took them less than two minutes to climb up several flights of stairs to the fifth-year's boys' dorm room. Just as Hermione closed the door, placing a locking charm on it, they all looked at him expecting for him to say something. And Harry didn't leave them waiting long: he briefed them on how he'd been caught, the whole discussion with Umbridge, Dumbledore taking the blame and escaping. He decided to let them vent a little before even mentioning Sirius and Mia had been sacked as well…

"Dumbledore will be back before long," Ron told them confidently. "They couldn't keep him away in our second year and they won't be able to this time."

"In your second year they kept him away long enough to make damage," Ginny replied. "It wasn't until I went down to the chamber…"

"Until Tom _possessed _you into going," Harry corrected her automatically. Funny, just seconds ago he's had no clue of what to do about her, with her or around her. Now that had just came out so easily…

"Never mind who caused it," she said, brushing it off. "It wasn't until someone had been taken down there that they saw how stupid they'd been by sending Dumbledore away. This time around its different – Fudge is making a power play and Umbridge couldn't be happier with it."

"Oh, I expect she really fancies herself sitting up there in the Heads office," Hermione said in annoyance, sitting on one of the bed. "Lording it over all the other teachers, the stupid puffed-up, power-crazy old…" she stopped herself and took a deep breath. "Now there's no end to what she can do."

"But what about you?" Izzy asked her brother. "I find it hard to believe she'd just let you off the hook."

"Oh, she didn't," he said, making his way t the window and looking out of it. "She gave me detention and I suppose from now on she'll turn my life into a nightmare."

"Wu know Mom and Dad will never let her," Izzy said confidently.

He froze and knew immediately that there was just no way of delaying it more. His throat felt dry and he thought he might not be able to say it… But he had to. Harry turned to face her slowly, seeing her sitting on his bed by Ginny's side. "Hum, Iz… they… she…" he took a deep breath. "The first thing Umbridge did when Fudge named her headmistress was… firing them."

She didn't quite understand what he meant at first. "Firing who?"

Hermione's face was of shock, matched by her voice when she spoke. "Hum, Izzy I think he means your… your parents."

She got up with a jump, disbelief all over her expression. "My parents? Mum and Dad? No, she can't have a reason to fire them." Her face turned to Harry. "You don't mean them, do you? Tell me it wasn't them."

He nodded. "It was – she made up completely ridiculous reasons to fire them but nobody could stop her. Not even McGonagall!"

"Blimey, that's mad," Ron said under his breath.

"She obviously didn't want anyone standing between you and her, Harry," Hermione stated, pacing now. "What cause did she say exactly?"

"Favouritism. To Izzy and I," he told her.

"What? That is completely ridiculous! They've never… Oh, I'm sure what she did was illegal at some rate, I could verify…"

Ginny stood up as well. "She'd Fudge's pet, Hermione… or maybe the other way around. My point is that he'd change the law to back her up if the need came, Hermione."

"He's done it before time and time again," Harry agreed, his face looking down. "It will _never_ end."

The silence that followed was solemn. They'd been low before: with the philosopher's stone, the chamber, the dementors chasing Sirius and the tournament. But they'd always believed there would be an end to it. This time, they didn't. It would only get worse and worse until they hit the bottom…

"I want to go see them," Izzy spoke up. "Harry, let me borrow the invisibility cloak. I want to go see Mum and Dad. I need to see before they go, a least!"

"I know. But I'll be going with you," he told her. "Sirius told me to bring you to them too." His godfather had whispered that request to him when they'd shared a farewell hug.

"Good, then let's go."

"Hold your horses for a minute, Iz. We need to let the common room empty a bit before. There's people everywhere – wouldn't they find it odd to be bumped by a hard invisible thing?"

"Well, it's past eleven," Ginny said before turning to Ron and Hermione. "You guys are prefects – aren't you supposed to send people to their dorms by this time?"

Hermione nodded. "I suppose we'll get going to do it, then. Come along, Ron."

"Can't you do it by yourself?"

She grabbed his arm and used her wand to unlock the door and pull it open. "You're a prefect! Act like one!" Hermione told Ron, all but dragging him out behind her.

Izzy followed seconds later, saying she was going to her own dorm to change out of her uniform into more comfortable clothes. And when she closed the door behind her, Harry and Ginny were left alone in the room.

Harry stood still first, wondering what to do or say, now that they it was just the two of them. They needed to talk about that kiss, he knew. There was no denying he had a thing for her. But what if the kiss had meant nothing to her? He had to ask. Or else he'd go mad thinking of it. "Ginny, hum… what was that back in the Room of Requirement? The… er, kiss?"

She bit her lower lip. "Sort of sudden, wasn't it?"

"Hum, yeah," he agreed. "But why did you…? You know."

Better come clean and get on with it, Ginny decided. She'd been the one straightforward, hadn't she? "Well, I've wanted to kiss you for a while. And in the middle of all that mess… I figured there was no time like the present."

"You've wanted to kiss me…" he mumbled. "For a while."

"Yep," she confirmed.

"Why?"

She raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean 'why'?"

"Alright, it didn't come out the way I was planning. What I mean was… did you just want to kiss me? Just a kiss? Because last time I checked you were dating Michael Corner."

"I went out on _one_ disastrous date with him nearly two months ago and we've barely talked ever since. And you know why I went out with him?"

He shook his head.

"Because I wanted you to ask me out already! I wanted you jealous!"

"Jealous?" he asked in disbelief. So he'd been pining for her all that time thinking she had another bloke and she was just trying to make him… jealous?

"Yes! Merlin, sometimes you're just as thick as Ron is," Ginny stated, frustrated. "I was going to take matters in my hands this Saturday, believe me. Ask you out myself – no 'no' for an answer. I kissed you because I care about you and I want you to be my… boyfriend. You get me like very few people do and you were in my life for the best and the worst. Maybe I'm wrong but I feel like I get you too. If you don't want this, it's fine. Just don't leave me hanging here – either pull me up or let me fall down."

He sighed – just when one thought the whole world was dark, a little redhead light burst out… He'd spent several moments thinking of what to say in return but no words sounded good enough. So, he gave up on the words and invested on the actions. He sealed it with a kiss.

---

"What do you mean you've 'sealed' her classroom and her office?" Mia asked her husband in confusion.

"I mean that where there used to be doors and windows to Umbridge's classroom and office, now there's just thick stone wall. Unbreakable by anyone but the person who casted it, by the way," Sirius explained, pleased with himself. James was the one who came up with this spell, I'll admit. To keep that annoying bloke locked in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom for a day. Brilliant. Anyway, I don't think she'll like finding out that all her possessions are locked in there."

"If there's anyone who deserves it, it is her," Mia said through her teeth before she levitated the last books into the box. "That… that…"

"Harpy?" Sirius provided.

"Yes, that bloody vicious harpy! How can someone let her near children, let alone be their headmistress?!" she told him indignantly. "I hate her. I don't think I've ever hated anyone but Voldemort or Death Eaters before. But I hate that _bitch_. And I hate her even more because she lets out parts of me that scare me. At the office I just wanted to grab any one of Dumbledore's things and use it to turn her face into a bloody cake! That's not me!"

"You weren't the only one to think that, love," he assured her just as the door of the office burst open, apparently by nobody hand and was closed again.

"What the…" Mia mumbled before the kids slipped from under the invisibility cloak that had once belonged to James Potter. "Izzy, Harry! What are you doing here?"

"Don't blame them. I've asked Harry to bring her," Sirius confessed, moving to the door so he could lock it and avoid any undesired guests. "So we could see Izzy before going away."

"Sirius…" Mia started.

"She really didn't want you to leave without saying goodbye, Aunt Mia," Harry told her, making an effort to hide his smile. It felt wrong to be so happy in such an occasion… He'd tell them about Ginny in another time.

"I'll really miss having around, Mom," Izzy told her mother, making her way to her and hugging her. "Things are going to be bad without you two here and with her ruling us all."

She sighed and rubbed her daughter's back. "We know, honey, we know. That's what makes us feel worst," she told Izzy before she pulled away and moved to hug her father tightly too. Mia made her way to Harry, then and couldn't help giving him a thankful look for bringing Izzy there. Deep down, she knew she'd have felt at loss if she hadn't said goodbye to her daughter too.

"You know that you can always count on us, Izzybel," her father assured her. "If anything happens, believe me, she won't be able to keep us out of this school, not even with a full army of aurors. It's a promise." He kissed her forehead and pulled away then. "You have that two-way mirror I gave you. Use it to talk to us. Once a day, at least. We may not be here to help but there are still people we trust in the inside."

"We will," Harry promised.

"I've already told Harry to be careful," Mia told her daughter. "And I'll say the same to you now."

"But don't let that keep you from making her reign into he…" His words died as loud bangs sounded on the door and Umbridge furiously yelling from the other side for them to open it. "Quick, hide under the cloak. Wait for everyone to leave before you come out, okay?"

They nodded and moved to one of the corners of the room, covering themselves with the invisibility cloak. It was only after they were sure that the kids couldn't be seen at all that Mia moved to go open the door, only to find a livid Umbridge standing there. Her hair was messy, her eyes insanely wide open.

"_Where is my classroom?!"_ she yelled, stepping in.

Mia faked a flawless confused look. "What do you mean, professor? It is here on the first floor. See, just follow that corridor on your left, then turn…"

"I know where my classroom is! But it is gone!" the woman yelled before glaring at Sirius, who didn't seem to be paying attention, simply closing the box of books. "Where have you hidden it, Black? Give it back!"

Sirius shrugged. "I'm not sure of what you've been drinking but I can assure that an office is something a _little_ too big to 'hide'. Well, we'd love to stay and chat but we've been fired. Got to leave the premises in a few minutes, according to _your_ orders," he informed her, lifting the carton box and grabbing the broomstick he'd gotten from his office earlier.

"Nobody is walking through this door until you tell me what you've done to my office!" the new headmistress shouted. "Where. ?"

Sirius turned on his heels and winked at where he knew his kids were hiding before he looked at Mia. "Guess we're taking the floo then."

"It's faster, anyway," Mia agreed, following him with another box. "Good luck with the office, Dolores." And before Umbridge could react, the two of them were gone.

From their spot under the invisibility cloak, Izzy and Harry saw the woman's face red as a tomato. Then, she grabbed a jar that rested on a table and threw it against a wall with a grunt, breaking it into a million pieces. After she left, Harry and Izzy turned to each other and snorted. Their parents did know how to make an exit.

**A/N: Well, I barely had time to write this week because I was so stuffed with school work so, when the weekend came it was write, write, write, Annie. And I ended up with a 4100 long chapter... again. Well, let's hope you liked it. After this, I'm planning to jump into the build up for the Department of Mysteries. I'd say five, six chapters more to this part... Feed me with some feedback! Review!**


	52. Passage

Life as the Hogwarts headmistress turned out not to be as easy or enjoyable for Umbridge as she would have imagined initially. After all, it seemed the power to do nearly anything – including terrorizing hundreds of students and confiscating all letters addressed to Sirius and Mia, unaware they had other ways of communicating with their kids – was overrated.

More than a month after her office had been sealed, Umbridge still hadn't gotten any closer to having it open again or getting her possessions back. That and the head's office locking itself in protest against her had been more than enough to ruin the beginning of her reign. But it certainly wasn't the end of her misery…

Soon, the wave of pranks started as a certain group of members of the DA led by the twins had taken upon themselves to make her life even more diffucult. Their first strike had been trashing and making all available rooms in the castle stink so badly that no living creature would be able to stay in them for more than a few seconds – all of that just so Umbridge wouldn't be able to find another classroom or office anytime soon. Despite several attempts, Filch hadn't been able to get rid of the stench caused by the twins' new line of products, the _Putrid Breeze Collection_, only removable with their antidote. In the end, to her own horror, Umbridge had to move into a cramped supply closet in the Dungeons and teach her classes in one of the greenhouses.

Days later, after eating the most delicious-looking muffin she had ever seen for breakfast, Umbridge had ended up with her whole body covered with pustules that kept her in the Hospital Wing for several days, causing her to have all her food tasted by a house-elf from that moment on.

But Fred and George's masterpiece had been their own escape from the school at the end of April. It had caused, in a word, chaos. They'd exploded half the glass in the school, hexed every single member of the Inquisitorial Squad, Filch and Mrs. Norris included, set fireworks that lasted half a day and, the cherry on top of the cake, turned the Great Hall into a gigantic swamp. Then, after dropping out school, the two had happily flown away from it using two of the school brooms and leaving behind several inspired students that promised to continue with the havoc.

Meanwhile, at Grimmauld Place, Sirius and Mia could do nothing more that learning of what was going on from the sidelines, which really pissed them off. The only things that kept them from going mad were Alex, as it was hard to be angry around such a good-natured little boy, and the knowledge that, as long as they stuck together and raised some hell, the kids would be fine at school .

Harry, being Umbridge's favourite target for bullying and random detentions, was who worried them the most. However, since Ginny had become his girlfriend, Umbridge didn't seem to affect him as much, no matter how she tried. Ginny had been a huge mood-booster for him and, in Sirius and Mia's opinion, probably the best thing that had happened to him all year – she would not only be there for Harry when he was out of detention but sometimes purposely get herself in detention too just so they could spend it together. With her around, they knew he was taken care of.

"Morning, Love," Sirius greeted his wife in the first morning of June as he entered the room carrying their son. His eyes landed on a small red envelope that lay on top of the pile of mail that had arrived for them. Another howler – Umbridge had been sending them to him at least twice a week ever since they'd been fired. "Well, and here I was starting to think that she'd forgotten us already."

"No such luck," Mia replied with a chuckle, serving herself with some tea before sitting at the table. "Kreacher's disabled it already."

"Hum, seems like the little bastard serves for something, after all…"

She rolled her eyes. "Kreacher is a great and you know it. Besides, I know that deep down you like him."

"_Really_ deep down," Sirius said just as Alex started to squirm in his arms, wanting to be put on the floor.

"Down!" the little boy asked, pointing to the floor. His father chuckled, ruffling his hair before granting his wish. The little boy supported himself on his small legs and toddled his way to his mother, putting his arms up when he reached her. "Mamma! Kiss!"

Mia smiled down at her little boy and scooped him up, sitting him on her lap and kissing his chubby cheek, making him giggle. Every day, she couldn't help thinking that Alex became more and more like his father with his soft black hair, grey eyes and sparkling mood. He was a happy baby, despite everything that was happening in the world. The sun of their lives.

"Cookie," he requested, pointing at the jar on the counter.

She laughed. "No cookies for breakfast, mister."

He pouted and turned to his father. "Daddy, cookie."

Sirius chuckled. "Smart kid. Sorry, mate, Mommy won't let me have the cookies either." He looked up at Mia. "She's a bit if a witch."

She smiled. "Proudly. But if I was an evil one, I wouldn't say he could have a cookie after breakfast. And so can you."

"Cookie," Alex repeated looking at her hopefully.

"_After_ breakfast, baby," she promised, kissing her son's temple just as Kreacher appeared by her side and placed the plate of Alex's food in front of her.

Meanwhile Sirius opened the little red envelope of the Howler and read the message Umbridge had written in it, intending to have it yelled instead of read.

"What does it say this time?" Mia asked.

"More of the same. Let me see… _open my office_… blah, blah, blah… _you'll be sorry_… more blah, blah… _disgrace to the wizarding community_… _should still be rotting in Azkaban…_well, it's like hearing my mother's sweet words all over again," Sirius said, his tone bored as he placed message back in the red envelope ripped it in several pieces. "Bloody frog-faced woman."

"Bwoody!" Alex repeated happily, making his father freeze and Mia shoot him a chilling look. "Bwoody!"

Sirius gulped. "He'll probably forget it in a minute."

"You'd better hope he does," she said through her teeth threateningly as her son kept repeating it. She looked down at the little. "Don't say that, honey, it's a bad word. Only for silly grownups to say."

"Gowups," the toddler giggled.

"See? He'll repeat anything one of us says," Sirius said victoriously, seeing that as being off the hook. "Well, we'd better hurry up with breakfast – don't want to miss another chance to annoy our most detested former boss by showing up in Hogsmeade during a student's visiting weekend."

Mia smiled. "Of course, we wouldn't want to miss that. I'm not so sure about us taking Alex, though… it may turn messy."

"The ministry hates us, Mia," he replied. "It may turn messy anywhere we go as long as there are magical folks there. The kid needs to get out of the house and go to places other than Lulu's house and the playground down the street. Besides, Izzy would give us an earful if we didn't take him."

"Alright, alright," she agreed. "I guess we can deal with a messy scene well enough to spare the baby." She glanced down at her son, now feeding himself using a spoon instead of his hands like he had until a few months. "He's so big already. More like a little boy than a baby these days. Feels like it was just yesterday that we've held him for the first time, remember?"

"How could I ever forget it?" Sirius asked with a grin, looking at Alex too. "Tine wrinkled thing, he was. Now he's all big and handsome like his Dad."

Mia sighed. "Yeah, he is."

The little boy placed his spoon down, finished with his food, and looked up at Mia. "Cookie, Mamma."

She kissed his brow. "Alright, baby, let's get you a cookie." She got up, holding him close to her chest. He might be bigger but it would be a few years before they have to let go of him in anyway. And she hoped they'd be able to enjoy every moment of that time.

---

It wasn't the first time they'd come to Hogsmeade after being fired but the effect was still pretty much the same – they always kept looking around themselves, expecting Umbridge to jump out of nowhere and start yelling at them. And, deep down, they looked forward to it just so they could respond to her in the same fashion.

But, after ten minutes walking around the village with their son toddling holding his father's hands, there was no sign of Umbridge or of any student or teacher for that matter. It wasn't until Sirius felt the two-way mirror in his pocket heating up, signalling an incoming communication, that he understood why.

"_She cancelled the visit__!"_ Izzy said, furious from the other side of the mirror. _"Everyone was getting ready to leave and then she just showed up, smiled and said that there would be no Hogsmeade visits until the – I quote – 'culprits that have been disturbing the life and studies in this school came forward and are punished'. Can you believe it?!"_

Mia sighed. "Sadly, yes, we can."

"At some point, we simply stopped thinking there are limits to what that woman can do," Sirius explained.

"Kitty!" Alex said from the floor, pulling his mother's robes and pointing a cat that was passing nearby. "Pweety," he said with a giggle.

"_Is that Alex?__ Oh, I wanted to see him!"_

"We know – that's why we brought him," Mia said with a sigh. "But, well, you're coming back home for the Summer in three weeks, aren't you? You can be with him all the time then."

Izzy huffed. _"Yeah, I suppose. But this is so much worse without you guys here… She's gotten Harry in detention for a whole week. Again! It's like a prison."_

"Yeah, we've heard," Sirius said dryly – McGonagall had written to them about it. She always wrote to them, under fake names obviously, whenever Umbridge pulled something on either Harry or Izzy. "Is he there, by the way? We thought we might have a word with him…"

She shook her head. "_He's with Ginny in the Room of Requirement – at least they didn't have their dating plans ruined like everyone else since Harry was banned from Hogsmeade months ago._"

Sirius didn't reply, just pursing his lips – he knew that by 'everyone else' Izzy meant herself. Mia had mentioned she had a date set up with Terry Boot for that Hogsmeade visit and he'd been making an effort to stay out of that matter. Not that he liked _at all_ the fact that his little girl had taken a like for the 'art of dating'. But he'd swallow the frog and be supportive because he knew he had to accept she was growing up and getting a life… and because he didn't want her to resent him in the future for being too protective of her. He was lucky enough she'd accepted him so easily after twelve years of absence in her life. "Well, hum, tell them 'hi' for us, would you?" he changes the subject. "And I guess we'll only see you in person three weeks from now."

She sighed. "_Yeah, I guess. I'm sorry you had to come all the way there for nothing, though._"

Mia shook her head. "Don't worry about it, honey. We use the opportunity to stay out for a bit, take a walk with your brother or something."

"He walks all over the place these days – falls down a lot too. Anyway, Moony's probably here already. He was supposed to be patrolling the village today. I suppose we can catch up with him too."

Izzy nodded. "_Alright. Well, we'll talk later, then. Love you, Mom and Dad. And the shorty there with you._"

"Love you two, honey," Sirius said before his daughter's face disappeared from the mirror on his hand. "Ah, well, want to go grab a butterbeer?"

"Guess so," Mia agreed, looking down at her son and frowning when she saw him happily sitting on the ground, playing with some dirt. "Alex Black, what are you doing?" she asked, picking him up. "There isn't a clean spot on you!"

The little boy giggled before throwing a handful of dirt he'd brought up with him to the floor. "Funny!"

"No, honey. Dirt is… dirty, not funny," she told the little boy.

Sirius chuckled and ruffled his son's hair. "Mia, he's one year old – It's nearly impossible to teach him to resist a mess at this age." His arm circled her waist. "Come on, let's take him to the pub – we can clean him up there."

She huffed. "Well, he must take this messy habit after you."

He snorted. "I'll take your word for it, as I've never seen you playing with dirt." And then, he placed a kiss on his wife's cheek just as they were about to enter the Three Broomsticks. However, they literally ran into Fred and George, to their own surprise.

"Ooch, I'm sorry," Mia apologized before noticing who it was and raising an eyebrow. "What are you two doing here? I'd assumed that after that escape you've pulled you'd want to stay as far from the school as you could."

"It's not the school we want to stay away from – it's more that… help me out here with a word to describe Umbridge, Georgie."

"Munter?"

"Exactly. It's more that munter of a headmistress we want to stay away from," Fred finished. "And what better way to do it then escaping the way we did?"

"It was like a gigantic 'go to hell' right on her face," George added, proud of himself. "Merlin, we'll be telling this story to our grandkids decades from today. Ginny mentioned in her last letter that our swamp is still covering the Great Hall."

"Yeah, I've heard that too," Sirius said with chuckle, although he was pretty sure Flitwick would have been able to get rid of it in ten minutes tops if he really wanted to – apparently, he and Mia hadn't been the only members of the staff against the new headmistress.

Mia let out a sigh as her son kept fidgeting in her arms but this time she didn't put him down, knowing he'd likely launch himself at the dirt again. "Molly had better never hear what I'm about to say but… well done, boys. You should probably get the Order of Merlin prize for it."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "I don't think I've had the chance to tell you this before but you two could give us Marauders a run for our money."

Two equally proud grins covered the twins' faces. "Well, that's an honour to hear, really. You blokes have been our heroes ever since we found your map," Fred said. "And speaking of money, the two of us have an announcement to make."

"Should we make some build up?" George asked.

"Nah, let's just say it straight away."

They looked at Sirius and Mia and then chorused. "We're opening our own joke shop in Diagon Alley."

Sirius snorted. "You're joking."

"In a regular basis, yes," George said. "But not about this. We're really opening a joke shop."

"Oh, Merlin, help us all," was all Mia could say. She could picture the hell that would be raised with their various products spreading around the Hogwarts population. And considering Umbridge would be the one to deal with it, it was just perfect.

"That's bloody brilliant!" Sirius said with a wide grin.

"Bwoody!" Alex said with a giggle.

"Sirius! Not again!" Mia shouted.

"Sorry, sorry," he apologized before looking at his son. "Do Daddy a favour and don't repeat anything he says, okay, mate?"

The little boy giggled. "Bwoody!"

Fred elbowed his twin. "See the impertinence already?"

"Yeah. I see troublemaker potential all over that one," George agreed with a grin before looking at Mia. "You wouldn't mind if we borrowed him after he's potty-trained, would you?"

Mia rolled her eyes. "I think I'm going in before you start coaching him on a hundred and one ways of pranking without getting caught."

"Sorry about the cursing," Sirius apologized before Mia made her way into the pub with Alex in her arms.

Then, he turned back to the twins again. "Where were we? Ah, right, you've got to show me that place of yours. And to Moony. You know, as a little prankster courtesy."

"Actually, we pretty much only came here to Hogsmeade to see Moony," Fred pointed out. "He's in the pub, by the way."

"Mom told us he was stationed here for the order today," George explained. "So, we he figured we'd just come here and hire him on the spot."

"Wait… hire him?" he asked, surprised. "As in giving him a job?"

"Yep. Let's just say this whole store thing was a wee bit more complicated than we'd expected," he explained.

"Licenses, accounting, patents…" Fred let out a long sigh. "They take all the fun out of anything. And as our business is all about fun, we reckoned we couldn't afford having it killed off by all that legal rubbish…"

"… which led us to the conclusion that we might as well hire someone to take care of that stuff and, well, to keep us from turning into mad inventors and from blowing ourselves up one of these days. Who'd be better for that than the well-behaved Marauder?"

"Again, I say brilliant," Sirius said. "So, did he accept or do I have to go in there and a have a little fist-to-face conversation with him until he takes the job?"

George snorted. "Oh, we didn't really give him a chance to say 'no'. He rambled on and on about those anti-werewolf laws and extra taxes that we'll have to pay for hiring him."

"With the profit we've been making with those owl orders from Hogwarts, we carry that amount as change in our pockets," Fred added. "Anyway, it took a lot of sweat and blood, not to mention a certain amount of slickness."

"The point is that we won the final round and Remus Lupin is now our first official employee," George concluded. "He'll be reporting to work tomorrow morning, after he deals with the angry Metamorphagus that happened to be sitting with us."

"Tonks?" Sirius asked, an eyebrow rose. "What was she angry about?"

Fred shrugged. "No idea. Women stuff – get all worked up about anything, don't they? Angie does – Merlin knows she can be worse than Mom sometimes. Part of their charm, I suppose."

Sirius had a vague idea of what Tonks' annoyance might be related to but didn't let it out, simply nodding. "Must be. Well, I should go in and join Mia. It was nice to see you guys. Good luck with a shop… and, oh, nice move in hiring Moony. If you need some more help setting up things, just floo."

"We will," they assured him before parting ways.

He entered the Three Broomsticks and spotted Remus and Tonks, whose hair strangely had a mousy brown colour that day, immediately, clearly having a row at a table by the corner. And Mia, he noticed, had picked the table right by theirs that happened to be placed right behind a large plant. _Smart_, he thought. Close enough to get a wind of what was happening, covered enough for the others not to notice her there. Alex, however, wasn't with her.

"Where's the little bugger?" he asked Mia in a whisper as he joined her by the table, unnoticed by Remus and Tonks.

"Hagrid's watching him," she stated, nodding at a table at the opposite side of the room, by which their half-giant friend was sitting with Alex on his lap, making him even bigger than he was, as he spoke with some other bloke.

Sirius looked away from them and turned his attentions to Remus and Tonks's fight. "Figured what it is all about?" he asked her.

"Fred and George hired Remus for the shop."

"They told me. But why are they fighting about it?"

She shrugged. "Just listen."

And he did. The voices were muffled but clear enough for them to understand what was being said.

"… _and now you've got a job. That's one less excuse for you!" _Tonks clearly said.

"_The job was only part of the problem__, Dora! You know what I am, what I can do! You know I am too old for you!"_

"_Let _me_ decide who's too old for me and who isn't!"_

"_It doesn't change the other part of the problem."_

"_No, it doesn't. But it is all rubbish. I've told you a million times that I don't care if you're a werewolf! It doesn't matter to me!"_

"_It should!"_

"_No, it shouldn't," _Tonks said firmly before letting out a frustrated breath. _"But do you know what really bothers me about you? Being so bloody stubborn! Sometimes, this one included, I just want to grab your head and bang it against a wall until you stop being suck a stubborn prat and accept that you have a right to live! One thing you can be sure of: I'm not giving up on you so easily, you dolt, so get used to it!" _They heard a chair being pushed away from the table. _"I need to get some air. Think of what I've just said while I do it, would you?" _Next thing they knew, Tonks was storming out of the pub, cursing him under her breath.

"Damn me if they aren't a match made in heaven," Sirius said with a grin – he was actually proud of being her cousin.

"He certainly needs a woman that won't take any of his nonsense," Mia agreed, smiling too.

"Come on, let's have our own chat with Moony, shall we?"

She nodded, getting up and following Sirius. Remus seemed to be brooding when they first laid eyes on him and didn't move until they sat right in front of him at the table, nearly making him jump in surprise. "Where did you two come from?"

"The table right by this one," Sirius replied naturally. "Blimey, Moony, she told you off good, didn't she?"

The werewolf rolled his eyes. "Figures you'd be listening," he mumbled under his breath. "She doesn't get it, okay?"

"It seems to me that she does better than you, actually," Mia corrected him. "Tonks doesn't really care about what you are, Remus. Do you have any idea how lucky that makes you?"

"Too lucky," he said, looking down.

Sirius huffed and leaved against the back of his chair. "He's sulking now – someone put on a dramatic background song."

"Shut up."

"You shut up," Sirius replied.

"Both of you shut up," Mia demanded before looking at Remus again. "Alright, what happened between you and Tonks? And don't bother saying 'nothing', Remus, because I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be giving you that lecture if she didn't know you had feeling for her too. So, either you told her or you showed her. What was it?"

"I really don't want to talk about it," Remus mumbled, looking away.

Sirius stared at his friend for a moment – over two decades of knowing each were more than enough to teach Sirius how to read between his lines. "Hum, so you two hooked up."

"I didn't say that!"

"You didn't need to. It's all over your face, mate," Sirius replied. "Let me guess, you've done it and when she said she wanted more – a decent relationship, maybe – you blew her off with that bunch of excuses you carry around."

"I'm dangerous to her," Remus replied.

"No, you're not," Mia said. "And even if you were, she's an auror and a big girl. Tonks can take care of herself, don't you think? She does it for a living!"

"I won't put her through it. If something goes wrong…"

"Tell her that, why don't you?" Sirius interrupted him, nodding at the door through which the woman in question had just walked. "He's all yours for round two," he told the metamorphagus when she reached them.

Tonks shook her head. "No, it's not that. Kingsley's just sent me a Patronus – he and Dedalus Diggle were patrolling the village's boundaries."

"What happened?" Remus asked straight away.

"Looks like they caught one of the Lestranges."

**A/N: Well, I have a Geography exam tomorrow and here I am posting a 4k word chapter. Typical me. It's pathological, really. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter - it was certainly fun to write (since I've been covered with Geography books all week and this was what I did during my breaks). That last sentence marked the beginning of the final... let's call it arc, of this volume, which ends more or less with the DoM battle. Cross your fingers, people. The end is already written, though. Feedback is very welcome! Review!**


	53. Betrayal

First there was silence, then disbelief and then worry. The staring seemed to be a constant, though, after Tonks's announcement.

"One of the Lestranges?" Sirius asked, wide-eyed. "Just one of them? Wait, which one? Bellatrix?" _Please let it be Bella,_ he thought hopefully. By far, his cousin was the one he most wanted to see locked up. And have the key tossed away afterwards, just in case.

The Metamorphagus shrugged. "Kingsley didn't say – the message was pretty short. He just mentioned they caught one of the Lestranges and to meet him in the Shrieking Shack ASAP."

"In the Shrieking Shack?" Mia asked a bit confused.

"I suppose they'll want to question Lestrange before warning the ministry," Tonks explained. "Merlin knows they'd order a Dementor's kiss just to get this matter out of their way…"

Sirius got up immediately. "Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say 'count us in' – we're going too," he declared, continuing before his cousin could protest. "We're members of the order, Tonks – you catch a Death Eater, especially one that may very well be Bellatrix, you have to assume at least _I_ will want to be there for the questioning."

"And it's not safe for you to go out there when we have no idea if there are more around," Remus added, standing up too.

Tonks narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't you start dictating what is safe for me to do and what isn't, Remus. I'm an auror. I can very well take care of myself and it would be really useful if you got that into your hard head!"

"Nymphadora, I…"

"_Don't call me Nymphadora!_"

Sirius coughed. "Alright, I'm not sure if I should break the two of you apart before you strangle each other or have Rosmerta getting you a room upstairs before you give us a show." The two of them glared and he grinned cheekily in return. "How about we just save it for later and get going to the Shack? We shouldn't keep the Death Eater waiting. It's just rude."

"But what about Alex?" Mia asked suddenly, reminded of her son's presence when she heard a loud squeal the little boy let out as Hagrid flew him up like a toy airplane, higher than anyone in the room ever could. "It wouldn't be safe to take him there and, from what I've gathered, Lulu had some big date with Gabe today."

"You could ask Hagrid to take him to Molly," Tonks suggested hurriedly.

And so they did. Sirius and Mia wondered off for a few moments to talk to Hagrid about it and kiss their amused little boy goodbye. Then, all four of them made their way to the Shrieking Shack, with wands in hand just in case a Death Eater was to jump out of nowhere. That wasn't the case, though, as the way there was rather calm.

Surprisingly, when they entered the Shack, Dumbledore, who was supposed to be on the run, was standing right there in the middle of the hall talking to Kingsley Shacklebolt. The two turned to face them as soon as they stepped in, both of their expressions tense.

"Dedalus could use a break from the watching duty downstairs, Tonks," Kingsley told the young auror. "Would you mind…?"

She shook her head. "Not at all. I'll go there relieve him," Tonks agreed, reaching for the stairs and going down to the basement, but not before shooting a look at Remus that was somewhere between annoyed and infatuated.

"Sirius, Amelia, I wasn't expecting you here in Hogsmeade today," Dumbledore declared.

"We could tell you just the same," Mia replied.

The older man let out a small smile. "My little secret is out, apparently. They may keep me out of Hogwarts, Amelia, but they can't keep me too far away from it. I see it as my duty to keep an eye on my students, especially when they are out of the school's boundaries and its protection wards."

"So, you've been watching Hogsmeade yourself since they fired you?" Remus asked in surprise. "That's awfully risky, Albus. If they send you to Azkaban, they won't let you out anytime soon."

Dumbledore smiled again. "I have my ways not to be caught, Remus. Thank you for your concern. But well, I assume you're here about Rodolphus Lestrange and not me…"

"Rodolphus?" Sirius asked half disappointed it wasn't Bellatrix instead. Not that Rodolphus wasn't Dangerous either… "It was just him you caught?"

Kingsley nodded. "Yes, but there was at least one more bloke with him who escaped. They were dressed with regular clothes and covered with glamour charms so it's hard to tell who the other one was – we only saw this one was Rodolphus after we removed the charms. My bet would be on Rabastan, though – they were always attached at the hip."

"But how did you realize they were Death Eaters if they were so well-disguised?" Mia inquired.

"Oh, we didn't," Kingsley said. "It was they who attacked Dedalus and me. I suppose they just couldn't resist it, considering I helped Mad-Eye lock Rodolphus, Rabastan and Bellatrix up back when I was a rookie. Their father, Roderich, ended up killed in the process, which is another reason for them to want me dead. Anyway, the bastards started attacking as soon as they saw us – one of them was about to use the killing curse when Albus appeared out of thin air and stunned Rodolphus. The other one managed to apparate away before we could register what had happened."

"Merlin, that was close," Sirius mumbled under his breath.

Kindgsley nodded. "You can say that again…"

"We can't ignore that this incident happened during one of Hogwarts's Hogsmeade weekends," Dumbledore stated. "They were expecting to walk into a village full of students, for all we know. I suppose we'll need to thank Dolores for their absence this time around."

"You think they were going to attack a bunch of kids?" Mia asked, disgusted.

"Maybe not an attack, so to speak," Kingsley stated. "But the date can't be a coincidence. Whatever they were going to do, it had to involve the students."

"That's sick," Sirius hissed. Just thinking that his daughter was one of them, one of the possible victims of whatever plan Lestrange had been sent to put in practice, made his insides freeze and want to go downstairs to beat the living hell out of him.

Dumbledore let out a sigh. "I suppose we'll only know exactly what they meant to do after we question Mr. Lestrange – Severus should be arriving with the Veritaserum as soon as he manages to find an excuse to leave the castle."

---

**Six**** hours later**

The Veritaserum administered by Snape, who'd taken an eternity to arrive, together with a little Cheering Essence had certainly loosened Rodolphus Lestrange's tongue, Sirius thought as he stood outside the main room of the basement with Mia, listening as Kingsley and Dumbledore questioned the Death Eater.

In the first part of the so far three-hour-long interrogatory, they'd mainly asked general questions about Voldemort's followers, their identities and plans. Rodolphus didn't seem to be able to say much, though, likely because his master had protected the most important information with a Fidelius Charm.

But then, they finally reached the part when they were to talk about the plan that had led Rodolphus to Hogsmeade. And it was just as bad as they'd imagined: Rodolphus and the other guy he confirmed to be his brother, Rabastan, were sent to Hogsmeade in order to mingle with the crowd and, without being noticed, abduct one of the kids. "_Could be any mudblood or blood-traitor,_" the Death Eater had specified with a laugh.

Why? To send a message to the Order. To tell them nobody, not even kids, was safe now. To show them that, as much as they fought, they would never win. And that as much as the Death Eaters did, the ministry would never admit that Voldemort was back. "_They'd just say it was that idiot Pettigrew again. Handy scapegoat that one is._" Sadly enough, they knew it was the ugly truth they had to live with these days.

But Lestrange didn't stop there. When he proceeded to ramble about what their plans had been for the kid they were supposed to have abducted, whose ultimate fate was death, Sirius saw his wife's face, that had already been nearly colourless before, turn even paler.

"Oh, Merlin," Mia whispered, feeling nauseous as she listened to every gruesome word of it. She couldn't believe such… twisted minds could exist. She didn't even dare to think that it might have been her own daughter… Her hand covered her mouth. "Oh, dear Merlin."

Sirius approached her, placing his hands on her shoulders just to make sure she held steady, even though he felt cold sweat rolling down his own back. "Mia, look at me," he told her firmly. "It _didn't_ happen. They stopped them before anything could happen. He's just talking out of his arse."

Mia tried to listen but couldn't. "I think I'm gonna be sick." She took a step back and quickly reached for the stairs, making her way up them to a small loo there was on the ground floor.

"Will someone shut him up?!" Sirius shouted, bursting into the room where the questioning had been taking place just as Kingsley was pointing his wand at Lestrange – tied to a chair – and uttering a silencing charm. Like a switch had been pulled, all sound ceased to come out of the Death Eater's throat.

"That should hold him for a few minutes," the auror declared. "I suppose the cheering essence was a little too strong for him mixed with Veritaserum."

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, it must be related to his mental state after leaving Azkaban – my sources told me he was one of the most… altered in there."

"That's putting it lightly," Sirius said under his breath, glancing at his cousin's husband with disgust. He was bloody mad.

"Well, hopefully, with the small amount of essence Severus gave him, it will be all gone by the time the silencing charm wears off," Dumbledore stated. "I believe we're quite done here, then. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go contact Alastor – I suppose he'll want to know about this even though he's in eastern Europe recruiting allies for the Order. Unless you need me here…"

"We have it under control, Albus," Kingsley remarked, to which the headmaster responded with a nod before making his way out.

Sirius let out a huff, then, and occupied a chair that rested against the wall. "So, what are you doing with him now? Handing him to the ministry?"

"Yes. But not before changing his memories. We wouldn't want Fudge to find out about our little chat here," the auror stated.

From his chair, Rodolphus tried to shout something but nothing came out, so he glared instead. Clearly, he wasn't happy with the thought of ending up in Azkaban again. If it was anyone else, Sirius might have felt slightly sympathetic. Not this time. After hearing him say what he'd said, Sirius hoped he would get the Dementor's kiss. And strangely enough, that thought put him in better mood – the bastard would probably get what he deserved, this time.

It wasn't until around ten minutes later that the silencing charm wore off and Rodolphus's first words were directed to Sirius, his lips curled into a sick smile. "Think you're all big with me tied here, don't you, Black?"

"Did I hint in any way that I was interested in anything you say?" Sirius asked, indifferently.

The Death Eater snarled. "They're sending me to Azkaban but, who knows, maybe very soon I'll be out again. There's no coming back from the place where you're going, though."

Sirius rolled his eyes and turned to Kingsley. "Are Death Eaters always this depressive when you lock'em up?"

"I haven't locked up any in a while but from what I remember, yeah, most of them are," he replied casually.

"Joke while you can, Black," Rodolphus warned him. "While you're doing it, Bella's crossing her fingers for her to be the one to kill you. A little cleaning in the family tree, she calls it."

Kingsley was about to grab his wand to put a silencing charm back on Rodolphus but Sirius shook his head, saying he had it under control. "Good for her. Never expected her to grow out of her slob ways."

"She'll do it slowly if she can," the Death Eater continued, sadistically as Sirius tried to ignore. "Like the Longbottoms – turned out better that we'd expected, didn't they? Mad. Felt better than finishing them off. But don't worry, she'll finish the work with you. Or someone else will. Bella's not the only one who wants you dead, you know? That idiot of a rat, Pettigrew, he wants you six feet under nearly as much as she does. Boy, did he hate you and your friend Potter…"

Sirius glared at his mention of James – the bastard knew just where to hit. "Believe me, I want him dead ten times more than he wants me," he said, avoiding that last matter.

Bur Rodolphus continued pushing it. "Hard to believe you never saw it, how you offered him the place of secret-keeper right on a silver platter – ended up getting Potter killed, didn't you? Wormtail never had the rocks to do the dirty job, though. No, the Dark Lord gave him favour for being a snitch… and he used it on hits. Why get his hands dirty when he could have someone else wiping for him those he wanted?"

Sirius felt himself chilling. "What the bloody hell are you talking about?"

"That's it, I'm silencing him," Kingsley said.

"No, no, let him finish," he said urgently before looking at Rodolphus. "Finish what you were saying, Lestrange!"

"Hadn't figured it out yet?" Rodolphus asked mockingly. "Pettigrew hates your guts and hated Potter's too. He wanted you miserable, strike you where it hurt the most – family. So, he asked the Dark Lord to send us after Potter's parents. To kill them."

_No,_ Sirius thought as he rose from the chair. It couldn't be. All that time he'd been so blind… "You're telling me Peter Pettigrew was the one to mark the Judy and Christopher Potter?" People who fed Wormtail, who treated him nearly as good as their son just like they'd treated all of them. He turned to Kingsley. "Is he still under Veritaserum?"

He shurgged. "It's nearly impossible to tell right now – it depends on a lot of things right now: his metabolism, resistance to the potion…"

Rodolphus smiled, pleased he had caused a reaction. "Deep down you know, don't you, Black? That, potion or no potion, I'm not making this up." He was right, Sirius thought. It made sense – they'd left on vacation and Wormtail had decided to stay behind. And when they'd returned, the Potters were dead. "Wormtail had the Potters marked. And not just them. He might be a spineless moron but when it came to hating you and Potter he came up with the best. And what better way was there to give _you_ hell than through your little lover?"

"Mia," Sirius whispered, tensing even further.

"Oh yes. He really wanted her dead and buried. The Dark Lord thought it would have a better effect if we took the whole Davis family out like we'd done with the McKinnons." Lestrange let out a dramatic breath and looked at Sirius again, that sick happy smile playing on his lips. "But she ran away, didn't she? Knocked up with your brat, apparently. Too bad… But I guess the bloke was happy enough with her gone. Convinced himself he'd take care of her if she ever came ba…"

Sirius punched him across the face before Kingsley could even move to stop him. "Son of a bitch!"

Despite the stinging in his face, Rodolphus laughed like the damned and, just as Sirius started to reach for his wand, Mia came bursting through the door. "Sirius, don't!" she shouted, still as pale as she'd been before. "He's just trying to upset you."

"He's under veritaserum!" he shouted.

Kigsley approached them too. "You don't know that! But even if he's telling the truth, he's just using it to mess with you."

"I don't give a damn what he's playing at – you heard what he said!"

Mia shook her head. "It was a long time ago, Sirius! It doesn't matter!"

"The hell it doesn't! Wormtail wanted you _dead_!"

From the floor, Rodolphus laughed louder and spoke. "Don't you just want to just want to kill him, Black? Go ahead. Bastard only gets in the way, anyway. He's at the Riddle manor – it's in a small village, Little Hangleton, down at Berkshire. Tell him 'hi' for me before you make him see gree…"

This time, Mia was the one who reached for her wand and silenced him, pulling her husband's arm to get him out of the room. "Sirius, come on! Don't listen to him," she said. His eyes were fierce, she noticed. And angry… so angry. She needed to get him out of that room. "Let's get out of here. Let's talk."

He let himself be taken away but his eyes never left Lestrange's until the door was shut between them. The anger was building up by the second. He wouldn't let another day pass – he should have killed Wormtail when he'd had the chance. But he'd fix the mistake soon enough. That day, even.

"Sirius," he heard his wife calling him. "Sirius, look at me. Please, look at me." He did and found her eyes scared, staring back at his. "You've got to calm down. What he said doesn't matter, you can't…"

"Doesn't matter?" he asked though his teeth. "Did you listen to what he said? What that rat bastard did?! He put a hit on James's parents – _my_ parents in all ways that matter. He put a hit on _you_! And then he sold Lily and James and put the blame on me! I won't let him get away with this!"

"He won't!" Mia told him, confidently. "The aurors are after him, Sirius! They'll catch him one day – give him to the Dementors!"

"The aurors are not the ones who owe him the punishment," he spat back.

"Yes, they are, it's their job!" she replied. "You can't go after him on your own, Sirius. Maybe Lestrange isn't lying about where Peter is but he sure as hell won't be alone there! You'll be walking into a trap!"

"Then why shouldn't I oblige, Mia?" he asked back, boiling. "Why am I supposed to just stand down and do _nothing_? I don't care if this is a trap. Wormtail won't walk this time," he told her, trying to walk away.

She stood in front of him, blocking his way from the stairs that led up to the ground floor. "You have to care!" Mia shouted, her eyes red but not tearing up. "If you die, I won't survive. You're just going to give up your life for that slimy traitor? Do we mean so little to you? Your family?"

"He wanted you dead just so he could hurt me!" Sirius shouted back. "Get out of the way, Mia. Please. I need to go out. I need some air."

"No," she said firmly. "Not until you promise me you're not going after Peter!"

"Mia…"

"Look, I'm not saying that I don't care about what Peter did! It is unforgivable. Horrible, even. But it's not worth risking your life over. So, promise me! Please!"

Sirius pursed his lips and, before he could stop himself, he did something he'd never done before. He looked the woman he loved in the eyes and made a promise he never intended to keep. "I promise won't go after him."

She didn't doubt his word – she never would – and so she stepped out of the way for him to pass. Then, Mia just remained there, closed her eyes and sat on the steps, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

There were voices rising upstairs that she recognized and Sirius and Remus's. For some reason, they were fighting and, a couple of minutes later, Remus shouted at Sirius not to do something right before the door of the shack closed with a bang.

There was a pause when, deep down, Mia knew what had just happened, though her mind didn't want to accept it. She remained in denial, her eyes looking at the floor, until steps came down the stairs, circling her at the bottom. When she raised her head and saw Remus standing opposite her, worry all over his eyes, she knew it was true. His look said it all.

"He went after Peter, didn't he?" she asked in a whisper.

"Yes," her friend confirmed.

Mia closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands. "He looked me in the eyes and promised me he wouldn't," she whispered brokenly. It would have hurt less if he'd just plunged a knife into her heart and twisted it. It wouldn't have damaged it as much. "He lied to me," she said, tears running freely down her cheeks. "Sirius lied to me."

---

With all those angry feelings overwhelming him, Sirius had apparated three times to wrong destinations before arriving at Little Hangleton. The village was about the same size as Hogsmeade and it didn't take him long to identify the Riddle Manor, being the biggest house in the dusky horizon. It looked completely abandoned and, by his experience as a fugitive, a perfect hiding place.

He made his way there in a quick pace. All he could think of was reaching his destination and do what he'd come there for – killing Wormtail. _This time I'll end the rat's miserable life once and for all_, he thought as he walked through the gates that led to the Manor's gardens.

All was silent. His wand was clutched in his hand and his eyes were set on the door like nothing else existed. But at some point, he stopped, realizing something wasn't right. Where was the trap? Where was everyone? He was standing right there, in the clear, allegedly in a Death Eater's hiding place and there was no sign of anyone? He'd been expecting a trap… but maybe _that_ was the trap. The absence of one, or at least of a regular one.

He was right. Just as soon as he took another step, Sirius felt his foot touching a thin wire and all hell broke loose. Spells started flying from everywhere, clearly coming from the house's wards instead of people. They were of all colours, green included, which made him believe the killing curse might be in the mix.

He was fast running away but not enough to avoid being hit on the shoulder by one of the spells, which hurt so much he could barely see straight. _If it stings, it's because it's still there and I'm still alive_, he told himself as he turned to his dog form, which was a lot faster running than a regular human, dodging the spells and not bothering to look at the throbbing wound.

Then, as soon as he saw himself out of the house's boundaries, he turned to his human for again and apparated away, landing in a room he didn't recognise at first. There was a bed on which he sat, trying to catch his breath before he dared to look down at his shoulder and check how bad the wound was. He saw it was a burn – a bad one but, all things considered, might have been a lot worse.

The bloody house wards hadn't been set for defence, he concluded, but for attack instead. He'd never seen it before – whatever the way they'd made those, he was sure a whole lot of dark magic was involved. How else would they make bloody wards send curses all over the place?! That was as close as anything it could get to the perfect trap… no people to mess it up. Only curses programmed to decimate any enemy that came close. The burning spell couldn't have fully hit him – he didn't believe any of those curses weren't set to make as much damage as possible. If it had fully hit him, he would likely be dead. If he hadn't ran in his dog form, a lot faster than normal, he would have been killed.

With his wand, he healed it as much as he could. The spell made it feel worse before making it better – sure, it didn't look perfectly healed but the skin looked less damaged than before. It sure seemed a lot easier when Mia used it to cure burns she got while cooking. And that thought remind him of her. Mia.

All of sudden, the room around him, became familiar. He was in her old house – the Davis house, where Mia had grown up. He was currently sitting on her bed, where he they'd spent countless hours together. It was only then, in that place that had been hers for so long, that he realized what a stupid idea it had been to go after Wormtail. How deeply he'd betrayed Mia by doing it. And he regretted to the bone.

"Merlin, what have I done?" he whispered.

**A/N: Well, the chapter is about half a day early but I intended to post it before - unfortunately, a classmate of mine failed the written part of her exam and I had to help her study for the oral one AND I had to install Windows 7 in my laptop, which was pretty much a pain to do (but really fun to use :D). Chronologically, the battle will happen exactly a week for the events of this chapter, so, it's really close (in two or three chapters). Well, I hope you liked the chapter, overall. Feedback is very welcome. Review!**


	54. Misery

**A/N: Early chapter :D**

Mia hated crying, she really did, and she also hated knowing that she tended to do it in more occasions than she was proud of. That was one of those occasions. She wasn't sure if it was out of heartbreak or out of fear that the tears kept on falling as she paced left and right inside the kitchen. Likely, it was both… She was both miserable because of Sirius's broken promise and fearful that he might be hurt or worse in his stupid vengeful field trip.

Part of her saw it as a nightmare. It wouldn't be the first time that she closed her eyes and opened them again, hoping to wake up in bed that morning and have her loving husband, who hadn't betrayed her trust like it was nothing and shut her out completely just to go get his revenge. But it didn't work.

_Those you love are those who can hurt you the most_, Mia thought. She'd heard those words somewhere… or maybe read them. Either way, they made a whole lot of sense now.

Still, she prayed he was alright. It was past nine o'clock already, three hours since he'd gone after Wormtail. She hoped it didn't mean he was… _Don't think of it,_ she told herself. She needed to know he was okay, even if facing him would make her heart ache more than it already did. Mia let out a sigh and took a seat by the kitchen's fireplace, feeling incredibly cold, despite it being a relatively warm near-Summer night.

That was where Sirius found her, minutes later. She hadn't even noticed him watching her from the kitchen doorway or else she would have tried to hide the tears. He'd spent two bloody hours making himself feel awful for having lied to Mia like that. But none of it made him feel half as terrible as seeing her crying over him.

When Sirius had stepped into the house after apparating outside, Kreacher had been standing by the door sending him chilling looks. There was no questioning the house elf was completely loyal to his most recent mistress. And though Sirius liked to believe Kreacher didn't generally hate him these days, there had certainly been accusation in the house-elf's glare when he'd seen him_._ Strangely enough, that only made Sirius a little fonder of the damn house-elf – he was defending Mia. "_Mistress is in kitchen_," Kreacher had informed him, implicitly demanding he went there and apologize to her. That had been his intention all along but now he didn't quite know what to tell her.

He saw her eyes leaving the flames as she noticed him from the corner of her eye and turned her face to him. Their eyes met for a single, painful moment that only lasted until she looked away.

"Was it worth it?" Mia asked, wiping the tears from her eyes with her sleeve.

He heard her tone wasn't angry. It was just… sad. Empty. Heartbroken. How much damage he had made to her with a single action… He could barely find his voice to talk. "No," he said. _Not even slightly_.

Her lip trembled as she asked the next question… Merlin helped her if the answer was 'yes'. "Did you kill him?"

"No. It was a trap. I don't even know if he was actually there." She nodded silently. There was no 'I told you so'. No words at all… He needed to fill that silence or he'd go mad. "Mia, I…"

"Don't. For Merlin's sake, don't apologize. You looked me in the eyes and lied to me, Sirius. You made a promise and broke it as soon as I was out of your sight." She pursed her lips, fighting the urge to look him in the eyes. It just hurt too much meeting those silver orbs and feeling the betrayal, the heartbreak… the pain. "It just kills me, you know?" It was ripping her heart out…

Then, she lost her internal battle. To look or not to look… she looked. Mia swallowed the pain and her eyes met his one more time, not looking away this time around. He seemed sorry – apologies had fixed things between them before. Heartfelt conversations had done it too. But she knew they wouldn't do the job now, despite wishing they would… Suddenly, her eyes dropped and her breath caught when she saw blood staining the left shoulder of his shirt. "You're bleeding. What happened to your shoulder?"

He covered it with his hand instinctively. "It's just a burn. I healed it as much as I could before. It's not so bad…"

Before he could finish the sentence, she was already up and making her way to him, ripping the shoulder of his shirt and removing the bandage he'd conjured earlier to patch the wound. "You got this from curse. Damn it, if it had been stronger, even just a little bit, you could have permanent damage, Sirius!" _Or you could have died on the spot,_ she thought. He'd lied to her _and_ gotten himself hurt.

Sirius didn't reply – he didn't know what to say at that moment. He saw her stepping away for a moment and reaching for one of the kitchen cabinets to remove a wooden box from it, which she put on the kitchen table.

"Sit down," she said in a low tone, opening the box and lifting a little bottle of transparent liquid from it.

He obliged and Mia carefully opened the little bottle, approaching him. She poured small drops of the liquid over the burn. There was a tickling sensation and, seconds later, the stinging that he'd been feeling due to the wound subsided as Sirius witnessed it quickly healing.

"It will leave a scar. Dittany can only do so much when the damage comes from a curse," Mia said, as she put the bottle back in the box.

His hand gripped her arm, making her look at him out of reflex. "You can't hate me as much as I hate myself for doing what I did to you, Mia," he finally said. "I let the anger take control."

"I can't hate you at all, Sirius," Mia confessed softly. "But it doesn't make it hurt any less. I never thought you could ever look me in the eyes and lie like that – I believed in you when you promised you wouldn't go after him. Like I always did. But you broke it. I can't look at you and not think that you picked taking revenge on Peter over your promise to me. Over our family. I sat here waiting for hours, not knowing if you'd been killed."

"I'm so sorry, Mia," he murmured as he let go of her arm, feeling even worse. While he'd been in her old house, beating himself up for hurting her, he hadn't even considered she might be back home worrying sick…

"I wish that could fix everything. I really do. But I doesn't," she murmured. "I'm going to stay in the nursery tonight."

"You can take our room, Mia. I'll go sleep somewhere else."

She shook her head. "No. Stay there. I just want to stay with Alex tonight." After Sirius had gone to chase Wormtail, holding her son had been the only comfort she'd had. With a sigh, Mia turned around to leave and took a couple of steps in the door's direction before turning to him again. "Never lie to me like that again." And then she was gone.

He watched her leave, wanting to punch himself in the face. _Nicely done, Black_, he thought sarcastically. He'd been the only person in the world, maybe apart from Lulu, she'd completely opened herself to … she'd spent twelve years waiting for him because she trusted he would come back to her… and now he'd paid back that trust with betrayal. He'd ignored his promise, discarded her just like her adoptive parents had done to her so long ago. And for what? To walk into a trap? A trap he knew was there from the beginning. In his blindness, he'd hurt one of the things he loved the most in his whole existence. And it hadn't been worth it at all. Not that it would ever be.

He wanted kneel and beg for her forgiveness. But an apology wasn't enough this time – she'd said it herself. And her forgiveness wasn't something he had the right to ask for after what he'd done. He just hoped, dearly hoped, she'd give it to him sometime.

---

**Six days later**

"She's miserable, Moony," Sirius told his friend, huffing. "I messed up really bad this time. Merlin, I'm such an…"

"Insulting yourself won't solve anything, Padfoot," Remus told him. He didn't really know what to tell his friend. Sirius was right: he'd messed up. But then again, it was easy to see Mia wasn't the only one miserable because of their fight. It was full moon and, like all full moons, Sirius came by to help even if Remus had quite a stash of Wolfsbane Potion and could be by himself. But, being Sirius, he usually tried to lift up his friend's mood with jokes in the minutes that preceded the transformation. Today, the Sirius that sat opposite him certainly didn't sound at all like the Sirius he usually knew. "Well, is she talking to you?"

"Yeah, but not much," Sirius mumbled. Their conversations these days, if those could even be called 'conversations' at all, involved little more than half a dozen words each, were very rare and pretty much just for informative purposes. He didn't remember a time when Mia had been so distant… and, as much as he wished that was her way of punishing him, he knew it wasn't. She just barely spoke to him or looked at him or reached for him because it was too painful…

"She'll come around," Remus told him. It was hard to fill in the role of the positive bloke in the pair. But it was his duty as a friend. He understood what it was like hating Wormtail. He understood why Sirius had gone after him. The only thing he didn't understand was him lying to Mia to do it. But he wouldn't bother lecturing him… the guy was doing it enough himself. "You know, if you'd rather go home and stay there just in case she decides to talk to you, I'll be fine."

Sirius shook his head. "No, it´s okay. Elizabeth's staying with her tonight. I asked her to come by, lend her shoulder for Mia to cry on or something." He sighed – and to make sure that the sickly pale tone Mia's skin had these days wasn't something too serious… "Merlin, this sucks, Moony. I wish I'd listened to you when you tried to stop me… Since we got together, all I wanted was to protect her from being hurt. Turns out I was the one to do it, after all."

"We all make mistakes, Padfoot," Remus said before looking up at the clock on the wall to check the time. "Sunset is in a couple of minutes. You should change."

"Yeah," Sirius mumbled. He had feeling that night he wouldn't be such a great company to Moony. But then again, he wouldn't be a god company to anyone these days.

---

Mia tried to concentrate on the book she was reading in the living room but didn't seem to be all that successful… That was just one more of her failed attempts to clear her mind of thoughts about Sirius. And of that constant low-grade headache that seemed to be affecting her for the past six days.

Her mind kept flooding back to all of it even if she tried to keep it from doing such. Alex seemed to be the only distraction that worked on keeping her sanity but, after several hours playing at the park down the street, the little boy had fallen asleep in her arms and had to be put in his cot for a nap.

She considered just going to bed herself too. It was seven in the evening, which was pretty early, but she was rather tired, to be honest. She hadn't been sleeping much… or eating much. Her nights were restless and her appetite was gone. The few things she managed to choke down her throat weren't enough to give her energy for the whole day so she lied down more times and longer than usual…

"Lost in your thoughts, aren't you?" Elizabeth's voice came from the doorway as she made her way to join her friend at the sofa, Kreacher following her closely, as he seemed to be Mia's shadow lately.

Mia's head shot up to face the blonde in surprise. "Elizabeth, what are you doing here?"

Elizabeth sat down and let out a sigh. Her friend looked like she'd spent a few hours around Dementors – Sirius hadn't been exaggerating about how unhealthily pale she seemed. Or how sad. Maybe she should have come sooner… "Well, as you were alone tonight because Sirius must be helping Remus out during full-moon, I thought you might use some company. My Dad is watching the kids, so I'm free."

"You didn't have to, Elizabeth," Mia told her.

The blonde shook her head. "Yes, I did. That's what friends are for."

Mia sighed. "Thanks, then. Well, I suppose I should play the host and go get us some tea, then," she said, starting to get up.

From that point on, everything happened in a blur. Just as Kreacher insisted he'd get the tea for them himself, her ears started ringing and her vision became blotted. She felt so… so tired. What was happening to her? That was the last thought in her mind before her world turned completely dark.

Next thing she remembered was Elizabeth's voice calling out her name, shaking her. "_Mia, Mia!_" The voice sounded yards away and it took her several seconds to be able to open her eyes. When she did, she saw herself looking up at the ceiling with Elizabeth's face over hers.

"Oh, my god," the healer said, trying very hard to keep herself calm. "Mia, can you hear me?"

"What… what happened?" she asked hoarsely.

"You fainted, Mia. You were out for a whole minute!"

_One minute?_ she wondered, hearing her friend in the background asking Kreacher for some sugared water. She'd lost her sense of time at some point… Her body still felt sort of numb, though, and it was only with Elizabeth's help that she was able to sit up on the sofa, where she'd apparently fallen flat earlier. Better the sofa than floor.

"Okay, there you go," Elizabeth said, handing her a glass of water. "Drink this. All of it."

Mia took a deep breath and accepted the glass, taking a large gulp of it. "Thank you," she murmured to her friend.

"Thank you?! Merlin, Mia, what was that? What are you doing to yourself? Have you been eating at all?"

"I… I had some toast and tea for breakfast… some soup for lunch."

"Mistress left most of it in bowl," Kreacher pointed out.

"So, it's nearly seven p.m. and you've been running all day on toast, tea and half a dozen spoonfuls of soup?! Damn it, Mia! That can hardly be called eating," Elizabeth told her before turning to Kreacher. "Can you fix her a snack? And then something filling for dinner? I'll make sure she eats."

Kreacher nodded and disappeared with a 'pop'.

"Alright, lie down," Elizabeth demanded firmly.

"What? I've just sat up."

"You've just fainted on me, Mia! You've barely been eating and you look pale as a ghost." Sirius had been right to ask her to come… "I need to give you a little check-up now – you could be anaemic, for all we know. So, lie down."

She sighed but followed Elizabeth's orders, if not for anything else, to give her friend some peace of mind.

The blonde got herself a long piece of blank parchment and a blue quill that Mia knew, as she'd owned one of those back when she practiced healing, to be used to translate results coming from diagnosis spells into written reports. Then, Elizabeth started to pat Mia with her wand and then the quill, which wrote on the parchment like a quick-quotes quill. "This thing with you and Sirius is only hurting you, Mia," she said as she mechanically made her task. "You need to talk, not to walk around the house like strangers. That's not a way to deal with it!"

Mia sighed. "I miss him so much, Elizabeth," she whispered.

"He hasn't gone anywhere, honey," Elizabeth told her, lowering her wand for a moment. "Merlin, I don't think I've ever seen a couple as in love as the two of you are, Mia. Sirius made a mistake by breaking his promise to you but he's just as miserable about it as you are. It just takes a look at him to see it."

"It hurt so much having him… lying to me that way," she said, sniffing once and letting out a single tear. "It was like all we've been through or our family didn't mean a thing."

"But you know that's not truth, Mia. And you can't stop taking care of yourself over this. You can get really sick, Mia," Elizabeth said as she resumed casting the diagnosis spells. "Now, be a good girl and lie still so I can make sure you're okay. Then, we'll talk. Just the two of us."

Mia nodded. "Okay. You're the best friend one could ever have, you know? You, Lily, Lulu and…" She paused, sighing. Sirius was her other best friend. He was probably the one person in the world who knew her better than any of the other three together… That had to count something for something. That had to mean she'd be able to forgive him. Her heart wanted it so much... But that wound, the one from being lied to, was blocking the way.

"Your blood sugar is awfully low and you're a little anaemic," Elizabeth said after a few minutes. "Nothing that can't be fixed with decent food and a couple of strengthening potions. You have to…" she stopped talking suddenly and just stared at the parchment. "Hum."

"What?"

Elizabeth took a few seconds to respond. Then placed the parchment sheet on the coffee table and sat on the edge of the sofa where her friend was lying down. For a moment, just as the blonde let out a deep breath, Mia thought the worst. She lied there, frozen, until Elizabeth spoke. "It looks like you're pregnant, Mia."

Mia's head shot up and she looked wide-eyed at Elizabeth, supporting herself on her elbows. "What… I… I'm pregnant?"

She nodded. "According to your hormone levels... they're through the roof. The most common explanation is pregnancy, Mia. Let me just make sure…" She her eyes scrolled up the parchment and she murmured a bunch of things to herself. "Yep, this confirms it – you're really pregnant, Mia. I should go ahead and check the baby now… make sure everything is okay with it too…"

Mia was still a bit numb when she nodded and barely noticed as her friend kept taping her now exposed abdomen with her wand, having the quill furiously noting down the results. She was pregnant again… and why did that only make the weight in throat seem heavier? She closed her eyes and took a breath. It wasn't that she didn't want the baby. Oh, Merlin, how she wanted it. How she loved it just seconds after learning of that young life's existence. But it just… complicated things with Sirius. How was she supposed to tell him they were having a child now that they were so apart?

"Seems healthy to me," she heard Elizabeth saying. "Around seven weeks, it seems… Ah, Kreacher, thanks."

She opened her eyes to see the house elf leaving the room and Elizabeth with a bowl on her hands.

"Sit," she demanded. "And eat this – it's porridge. You need to stop doing this, Mia. This baby is your responsibility… I don't need to tell you that you have to stay healthy to keep it healthy too."

Mia obliged, sitting up. Knowing she was carrying another life in her, a life that completely depended on her, she couldn't allow herself to refuse eating, even if the food tasted like cardboard to her…

At some point, Kreacher appeared, announcing Alex was up from his nap, and Elizabeth went up to get him, leaving Mia alone with her thoughts. Her heart didn't feel as heavy as before, probably because part it felt happy because of baby. Sirius would feel that way too, she knew. He was always asking her for another baby. How she missed the warmness of his hold, the tenderness of his touch...

"Momma!" her little boy shouted happily as his godmother placed him on the floor. He stood up on his fast little legs and toddled his way to Mia, his stuffed dog clutched in his fist. She gave him a little smile and scooped him up to her lap, placing a kiss on the top of his head.

Then, unlike his usual hyper mood, maybe because he sensed his mother was troubled or because he felt like a little spoiling session, Alex cuddled against Mia, resting his head on her armpit and remaining there calmly, sucking his thumb.

Elizabeth chuckled as she occupied a nearby armchair. "Harper used to do that all the time before he became a 'big boy'. That's what he calls himself since he turned four. 'Big Boys don't cuddle with their Mommy'. Except they do, when nobody's watching."

Mia caressed her son's black hair. "They grow up so fast…"

The blonde nodded. "Time passes fast, Mia." She let out a sigh. "You know I have plenty of experience with having a husband lying to me – Ludo did it several times a week… sometimes even several times a _day_ – and I'm pretty sure could give you one hell of a bitter speech about men without a single tremble in between. But I won't. Because the reason why Ludo lied is completely different from the reason why Sirius did it. It's not worth destroying what you two have over a hot-headed mistake. You know I'm on your side here. And I see that being so distant from him is only hurting you more. You can't be under all this stress, Mia. You're pregnant!"

Mia tightened her hold slightly around her son, who was calmly playing with his stuffed dog, and rested her free hand on her flat abdomen. "I know."

Elizabeth sighed. "Look, I wasn't supposed to tell you this but Sirius was the one who asked me to come here. Not to step in for him or anything, believe me. He barely even mentioned it. He was worried about you, Mia, and didn't think he had a right to check on you himself. And he also thought you might need a friend to talk to instead of spending the night by yourself."

"He… he asked you to come?" Mia asked, her tone low.

Elizabeth nodded. "He loves you, Mia. Very much so. He's giving you space but not being able to take care of you is hurting him too. Merlin, I'd bet my soul that he'd rather rip his own heart out and feed it to Thestrals than hurt you that way again. Just… don't be angry at him for asking me to come. I think I would have come by, anyway. And don't tell him I mentioned this to you."

"I won't. I'm not angry," Mia murmured. She wasn't angry but she also wasn't sure of how to feel about it. Him watching out for her sure melted her heart a bit, made her want to forget the betrayal at all… but she couldn't forgive without understanding why he'd made that promise and broke it, could she? Why going after revenge had been more important than family. That was the sort of thing she imagined even he might not be able to explain...

"Well, how about I go get you some strengthening potion? We need to get you rid of that anaemia before it makes damage," Elizabeth said, getting up. "I'll be right back, okay?"

Mia nodded. "Okay," she responded seconds before the healer made her way out of the living room.

She closed her eyes, then, and took a deep breath, running the tips of her fingers over her abdomen. A baby. Hers and Sirius's. If only she'd found out about a week before… when everything was okay. "What am I supposed to do about your daddy?" she murmured, moments before she felt Alex shifting on her lap. She opened her eyes to see the little boy looking around.

"Daddy?" he asked.

She caressed his pudgy cheek. "Daddy's taking care of uncle Moony." Mia sighed and kept talking, not expecting a coherent response. "Mommy's confused, baby. About Daddy. About your baby brother or sister…"

Alex looked at her, also confused, probably because he hadn't understood half the things his mother had said. Still, knowing she was a bit sad, he offered her his favourite stuffed toy. "Dog."

Mia smiled at her son, accepting it. "Thanks, honey." She pulled him against her chest in a hug, took in the soft baby smell and preyed soon she'd be able to truly forgive Sirius so they'd all be a family again. All six of them.

**A/N: Well, sort of depressive those two are, hum? You must be wondering why I posted early... well, like I said before, exams and procrastination inspire me... I hope you liked the chapter. If things go as planned, the battle will happen in the second half of next chapter. Feedback is very welcome - Review!**


	55. Battles

**A/N: First of all, this is THE longest chapter I've ever written and didn't break in too (as much as it might be handy, considering I'm still drowning in exams). The awaited chapter is here. Starts with a small flash-forward. I honestly hope you like it. Keep in mind it will continue next chapter (and things omitted here will be said there). Well.... knock yourselves out.**

**7 June 1996, evening time – Department of Mysteries **

There were explosions all around, sounds of battle, even screams. The feeling of air against skin made everything seem cold. Dark.

How unfair, how… wasteful. Just a moment of distraction and relief had caused it all.

The hex from Bellatrix's wand had felt like the aftershock of an explosion, an unbearable force that rose one above the floor, causing disbelief. And then pain and shock. The last thought was of fear. _Is this the end?_

The voices faded slowly into the hollow and the embrace of darkness came, taking all consciousness away…

---

**Twelve hours earlier**

Mia woke up in the morning in her own bed, feeling slightly better than she remembered feeling before. The low-grade headache was still affecting her but at least she didn't feel as drained, which might be related to the massive amounts of food and the strengthening potion Elizabeth had made her take the night before. Plus, the bedside clock indicated it was half past seven, which meant she'd slept five hours in a row, a record since she'd fought with Sirius...

She glanced at his side of the bed and noted he still wasn't there. Despite their fight, she'd returned to the bed a day or two after it, though they lay as far away from each other as it was humanely possible – why, Mia couldn't really tell. All she knew was that she needed to feel he was nearby, despite never reaching out for him, as contradicting as that might be. But that morning his place was occupied by their little son, instead, who slept soundly, gripping his favourite stuffed toy and sucking his thumb.

Mia caressed Alex's dark baby curls and sighed as she remembered the news she'd received the previous night. She was pregnant. The simple thought of it made her hand go instinctively ouch her flat abdomen. How was she going to tell Sirius about it?

She let out a huff and turned to her other side in order to light the bedside lamp and found a folded note on the end table. Mia sat up and unfolded it, recognizing Elizabeth's handwriting immediately.

_Had to go home before the kids woke up. Left a bottle of strengthening potion with Kreacher – drink it with breakfast. I'll be back tonight to check if you're getting better._

_Elizabeth_

_P.S.: If Kreacher tells me you're not eating again, I swear I'll go mean-healer on you!_

_P.P.S.: Go for a walk – you need to get some air._

Mia sighed, folding the note again and shoving it in the drawer. Typical Elizabeth. Merlin knew what might have happened if she'd fainted last night without her friend there… Their conversation, not to mention the full hour she'd spent crying her heart out as her friend comforted her, had helped reducing some of that weight she'd been feeling. She'd needed vent it out a bit.

The soft knock on the door made her jump slightly. She imagined it might be Kreacher, telling her to come down and have breakfast – awfully sensitive ears the house-elf had in order to hear she was awake. "Come in," she said, not too loudly so Alex wouldn't wake up.

But it wasn't Kreacher that opened the door – it was Sirius. He gave her an apologetic look when he saw her sitting up on bed. "I just need to get some things before I catch a few hours of sleep down at the sofa…"

"It's okay," she whispered. When their eyes met, it didn't feel as painful as it had before… Maybe, she hoped, it meant part of her was starting to get willing to forgive… Her voice was a bit unsteady when it came out again. "You can stay here – I was getting up, anyway. Hum, Alex slept here in bed. I can take him to his cot, if you want."

Sirius shook his head as he closed the door behind him. "No, you can leave him there." It had been a relief for him to look at her and to see she'd gained some colour and looked less tired. He hated seeing her down, especially because of him…

Just as he was about to make his way into the room's bathroom, Mia stopped him. "Wait, Sirius," she said. He turned around and looked at her, as a million thoughts raced within Mia's head. It was another internal battle: to tell or not to tell him about the baby. It was his – he had a right to know… but she wanted it to be a happy moment, a bright light in the middle of the depressive world they were getting into. It didn't seem right to tell him now that they were so distant. She needed to figure things out first – have a little time to think… _Just a little longer,_ she promised herself and her unborn baby. "I… hum… I just wanted to know how Remus is doing." She finished a bit lamely.

"Oh, he's had worse," Sirius replied. "He'll be fine after a few hours of sleep."

Mia nodded silently and slipped out of bed, dressing a thin robe that rested on top of a chair. She wasn't sure of what to say on her way out. But she didn't need to decide, as he was the one to speak first.

"Mia… are you okay?"

She looked at him and saw, by his expression, he didn't mean if she was okay at the moment – he meant it in general. Sirius was still worried about her, just as he'd been when he'd asked Elizabeth to come by to lend her a shoulder to cry on. He had no idea of how important it had been for her – maybe that was the reason why dealing with him didn't feel as hard that morning. "I'm hoping to get there."

And as he saw her leaving, Sirius felt wondered what that meant.

---

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts the kids were completely oblivious to the tension between Sirius and Mia back home. It was past six in the afternoon when Harry exited the classroom where he'd just taken his History of Magic OWL. While Hermione had stood behind, trying to discuss the exam with Binns, who Umbridge had rehired after firing Mia, with Ron, internally celebrated the end of the OWLs, Harry made his way to meet Ginny by the lake.

Izzy was with her when he reached the lake minutes later, bending with Ginny over a large book that Harry recognized as a Runes dictionary.

"I was sure it meant 'freedom'," Izzy was saying.

"Well, there's nothing here meaning 'freedom' that sounds remotely like eihwaz," Ginny said in annoyance. She looked up and found Harry staring down at them. "What on Earth does eihwaz mean?"

"How am I supposed to know?" he replied, clueless.

"Wait, wasn't it 'ehwaz'?" Izzy asked, confused. "Oh, stuff it. If I want to learn how to translate ancient stuff, I'll turn to Ancient Greek or Latin, not this!" She shoved her stuff into her bag and got up. "You know what? I give up. We'll just ask Hermione later."

"Look, if you two need to work together, I can go mind my own business and come back later," Harry assured her and Ginny.

Izzy shook her head. "You're not about to skip being together for a stupid runes homework. Besides, Terry asked me to meet him in the boat house in…" she checked her watch, "ten minutes."

"Terry Boot?" Harry asked a bit sceptically.

"The boathouse is snog-spot, you know?" Ginny pointed out. "People only go there to make out in private."

Izzy grinned. "I know. He felt bed because we couldn't go out last Saturday when the Hogsmeade visit got cancelled. Terry's sort of good-looking, isn't he? And a good kisser…"

"Weren't you just about to leave?" Harry asked, urging her to go away with her boy-related conversation.

She rolled her eyes. "Right, I have to know you snog my best friend in a regular basis and you can't hear me mentioning some bloke. That's fair."

"I wasn't the one who told you any of it," he replied. "Look, I have nothing against the bloke but there are things a brother just _doesn't want to hear about_. Like how great a kisser Terry Boot is."

"Well, he _is_ a good kisser," she said defiantly before turning around and walking away. It wasn't like she was interested in seeing them snogging either…

Harry huffed and sat down on the ground, taking the spot Izzy had occupied by Ginny's side. Then, he leaned a bit closer to his girlfriend, kissing her softly on the lips. "Hi."

"Hey," she replied, smiling as she pulled away. "So, how was the OWL? Should I be worried about next year?"

He chuckled. "Well, they asked questions from stuff we learned from the first year to fifth, so it wasn't that bad as aunt Mia was the one to teach most of it. You'll probably be fine. But I'd rather not talk about it. OWLs are over. Period."

"Alright, so what are your plans for the Summer Break…"

That was one of the things he liked the most about being with Ginny. They could talk about pretty much anything. Sure, he loved the snogging part of their relationship like any teenage boy would but he also liked knowing their relationship wasn't just about that. Ginny was his friend just as much as she was his girlfriend. She made him feel… like a normal fifteen-year-old kid.

They had some more minutes of 'normal' until reality came knocking on the door. Just as they about to kiss once more, Harry suddenly saw himself floating along the corridor that led to the Department of Mysteries in someone else's body.

It had been months since he'd dreamed of it and, this time, he didn't stop at the door. He went in. The vision ran through his head and, as much as he tried to push it out, he wasn't strong enough. But when he heard the screaming and felt the vision changing, as if he'd just occupied someone else's body, he stopped fighting. The room was enormous, full of shelves covered with spheres. There were forms on the floor, one contorting as Harry himself, or whoever owned the body he was occupying, used the Cruciatus curse.

"_Stop! You're going to kill him,"_ a familiar, desperate voice shouted. It was aunt Mia. "_Please, stop!"_

"_Then you'll fetch it for me,"_ he replied. It was Voldemort. He'd never forget the sound of that voice.

"_Don't, Mia,"_ the person who'd just been on the other end of the Cruciatus, Sirius, mumbled from the floor. _"You'll have to kill us, you son of a bitch!"_

"_Oh, I will_," Voldemort assured them. _"But first you'll suffer if you don't give it to me. Your boy will be next. Maybe he'll be a better incentive."_

A child's cry was on the background and Harry was sure Alex was there was well… His heart thumped fast with fear as he watched it. Suddenly, he felt a blow on his face and light filled his eyes again.

He was back, sitting on the ground by the lake at Hogwarts, and Ginny kneeled in front of him, her hand still raised from slapping him awake. "Harry!" she shouted, shaking him.

"Ginny, what…" he asked her, confused.

"You just went rigid, Harry," she replied with a slight tremble in her voice. "Irresponsive. What was it? Was it a vision?!"

That reminded him of what he'd seen and his body shook with alarm. "Yes. It was aunt Mia and Sirius and… and Alex too. They were in the department of mysteries. Voldemort has them – he's torturing them!"

She eyed widened. "Oh… Harry, are… are you sure it was true? That it isn't a trick," she started – she had more than enough experience with those. "Dumbledore said it might happen…"

He wasn't sure. He couldn't dismiss it or accept it without checking. "My bag! Gin, give me my bag!"

She nodded, reaching for the bag where he kept his school books. He started browsing it for something as soon as he got hold of it and removed the two-way mirror from its interior. "Sirius Black," he shouted, getting no response from the other end of it. "Amelia Black," he said, then. Still no response.

"It still doesn't mean…"

"I need to be sure," Harry said. If only McGonagall was there to floo them, as Umbridge had blocked all fireplaces but hers… but the head of Gryffindor had been sent to St. Mungus after she'd gotten hurt trying to defend Hagrid when he was sacked. Thet need to use Umbridge's fireplace so he could call home. And if they'd really been taken, he'd go get them himself. Voldemort wouldn't take away his family again. Harry wouldn't let him.

---

Mia wasn't sure why but, not long before dinner time, she saw herself standing right outside Lulu's door.

She'd been driving herself mad all day just by thinking. Why did things have to be so hard? She knew she wanted Sirius back. She knew she loved him immensely. Why couldn't she just forgive him? Her heart and her mind seemed to be duelling a whole lot more than it was healthy, lately. She wasn't even sure which one fought for which: forgiving or not forgiving. Maybe she just needed more time. Or maybe she was just becoming a nutter.

Unable to deal with that fight anymore, when she'd gone out for a walk while Sirius was still in the park with Alex, she'd ended up apparating on the doorstep of her mother's flat, unsure of why she'd gone there in the first place. It likely had to do with the fact that Lulu always seemed to have an answer for everything – maybe she'd have one to all those doubts as well.

The door opened but, instead of Lulu, it was Gabriel opening it. It didn't take more than a glance to see that her birth father was surprised to see her. "Oh, hello, Mia. I wasn't expecting you. Come on in."

"Maybe I should have flooed first or something," she mumbled. She might have, if she'd been planning to go there at all… "If I'm interrupting something…"

He shook his head immediately. "You're not. I'd just gotten home, actually – your mother had been nagging me all month for us to go out watch some Muggle movie and we ended up going today. She's out now, getting us dinner from this take-away place down the street, but I don't think she'll take long. I suppose you're here to talk to her."

Mia sighed, stepping into the flat. "Yeah, I suppose I am too," she mumbled. Though Gabriel's presence was still relatively new around her, considering until a year before she'd believed he was dead, she'd grown to feel safe around him. Safer than she felt around many people she'd known longer and nearly as much as she felt with her family. Maybe blood ties, when they connected to the right person, were stronger than she'd imagined.

She sounded lost, Gabe noted. And looked that way as well. Knowing how it felt like, he also knew it was much harder to bear when one was alone, so, when Mia took a seat in the living room's armchair, he sat on a sofa near it, hoping to keep her company. Gabriel was well-aware that she and Sirius were at odds and why – news like that travelled fast, especially when one lived with someone as close to Mia as Luce was.

He wished he could do something for her, be her father like he was supposed to and do what a father did in a situation like that, which would likely be holding his child and not let go until it was all better… But he couldn't. He'd have to stick with being her friend. "Do you want to talk, Mia? Let part of it out before your mom arrives?"

Mia looked up. "How much do you know about what happened with Sirius?"

"Enough. Nearly all of it. This flat's walls are pretty thin – one can't really help overhearing floo conversations, including yours with Luce. Sorry about that, by the way. I try to be discrete about it."

She shook her head. "It's fine. I know you're not nosy. I suppose this saves us from me having to tell you everything."

"So, what's bothering you, Mia?"

She sighed. "I want to forgive him. I need to." First, for herself, because she missed him so much, then for her unborn child, who had a right to a life with his or her parents together and happy, and then for him, because she didn't want him miserable either. "But how am I supposed to do it when I can't understand why he did it? Why did he pick going after Wormtail over everything else? Why did he hurt me like that?"

Gabe sighed. While Mia couldn't understand Sirius's actions, he could relate to them. Maybe too much, even. "I think I can help you with that, Mia."

Mia's look was of surprise first and then of hope. "You understand what he did?" she asked.

He nodded. "It doesn't mean I think he did the right thing, Mia. But I get why he did the wrong one." Gabe let out a breath before starting the explanation. "Let's put it like this. Imagine the worst moments of your life were these: losing your best friends, losing the only decent parent figures you had, having to be separated from the love of your life and, finally, being innocently locked up for years. I know you've actually been through some of these things too. Now, imagine you find out _all_ those moments were caused by the _very same person_, who happens to have been one of your best friends, someone you'd have trusted with your own life and those of the people you loved the most."

_It would be crushing,_ she thought. Devastating. Being betrayed by someone you trusted completely felt like a kick in the gut. And then, suddenly, she was starting to get where he was going by saying all those things. _Oh, Merlin_, she thought. As realization started to dawn, the sorrow of the betrayal lost its force slowly.

Gabriel sighed as he watched her expression. "But it wasn't just revenge, was it? Pettigrew wanted you dead but you're still alive. As far as Sirius was concerned, by killing him he'd be protecting you from him ever finishing his plan. Learning stuff like that would make you go primal, Mia, make you stop thinking and start acting just out of instinct. Sirius's instinct was making him pay and protecting you – he wouldn't let anything or anyone get in his way and, because he wasn't really thinking, he probably didn't realize the extent of what he was doing to you with that promise until it was too late. So, be honest to yourself, Mia. If you felt all those things, would you be strong enough not to react the way he did?"

Mia asked herself if anyone could ever be that strong. "No. Oh, god, no, I wouldn't," she told Gabriel. "He didn't realize he was would hurt me, he was trying to protect me…"

"Of course he was," Lulu's voice came from behind both of them. They turned around to see her leaning, arms crossed, against the doorway. She'd been standing there long enough to hear Gabe's words and supposed she couldn't have said it better. But, of course, being Lulu she wouldn't walk away without saying a few words as well. "The guy loves you ridiculously – he'd need to have more than a couple of bolts loose in his head to even consider hurting you on purpose. Put one thing in your mind, Mia. People are stupid: we start wars, get each other killed, make mistakes and more mistakes. Both Muggles and Wizards… humans. But if we didn't make those mistakes, we'd be boring little goody two-shoes with even more boring lives."

Gabriel chuckled – the woman had always been awfully straightforward and that was one of the things he loved the most about her. There was no nonsense with Luce, he thought as the woman in question joined them in the sitting area, settling herself on the arm of the sofa.

Mia didn't even notice the silence that followed, then, so entranced she was with her thoughts. She understood now the feelings that led Sirius to do what he'd done. She'd even felt them as Gabe spoke. If only she'd understood when it happened, she might have reached him in his anger, stopped him and avoided those miserable days. "I made my own bed, didn't I? By demanding he promised not to go after Peter," she asked Lulu.

Lulu shrugged. "Maybe. Who knows? That's water under the bridge now, Mia."

She was right. One couldn't change the past, after all. Now, what mattered was that the future and, unlike before, that she felt she was able to forgive him… actually, she felt like she was doing it already in her heart. The decision was made: Mia would go back home, she'd wait for Sirius to come back, they'd sit down, they'd talk and, she was fairly sure of it, they'd work things out. And then, she'd tell him about their baby – things would be back to the way they were supposed to be.

Mia was quick to excuse herself to leave, promising to return the following day with news. She really didn't want to waste another minute now and just go back home to talk to Sirius. After flooing back home, she found herself landing in the kitchen and face-to-face with a blank-faced frantic Kreacher.

"Mistress is okay!" he said in relief.

Mia raised an eyebrow. "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't be?"

"Master Harry… He… he…" The house-elf was unable to finish.

She frowned in alarm. "Kreacher, calm down and tell me what is going on."

"Master Harry floo minutes ago. He looking for Masters but Kreacher say Masters were all out. Then, Master Harry say Masters be in danger. That the Dark Lord had taken Masters and torture them! He seen it like he see Mista Weezy bitten by the snake! Master Harry gone before Kreacher could check Masters!"

The lump in her throat returned and her voice was nearly gone. "He had a vision of us being tortured? Sirius and I?"

"And Young Master," Kreacher said.

_Oh Merlin_, she thought, feeling sick. She knew Harry. She knew what his reaction would be, what it had always been – he'd try to save them. "It's a trap," she said. If Harry had had a vision of them being tortured and they were here, it had to be a trap. "It's a setup. Oh, Merlin, we have to stop him."

"What happened?"

Mia turned around and saw Sirius stepping into the room before he placed Alex on the floor and the little boy ran to the counter, trying to get the cookie jar on top of it. She looked her husband in the eyes, knowing her plans to talk and forgive had to be postponed. "Harry. He had a vision of us being tortured. He'll go try to save us, Sirius! We need to stop him and tell him we're okay!" The she paused. "The mirror… we can use it to talk to him!"

He immediately reached for his pocket, despite still feeling in shock, and found it empty. "The bedroom. I must've left it there!"

They didn't even hesitate before darting up the stairs, reaching their bedroom in record time and getting the round mirror that rested on top of a bedside table. Sirius reached for it first and called Harry's name. Then, the mirror was dark and he hoped that was because was in his godson's pocket. But no response. Not even when Mia joined him calling Harry's name.

"He must've left it somewhere. We need to go to Hogwarts, maybe we'll get him in time," Sirius stated.

"They won't let us in…"

"We'll find a damn way in!" Sirius replied. "There are secret passages. We can…"

There was a sudden 'pop' and Kreacher landed opposite of them. "Floo call for Masters downstairs."

"Is it Harry?" Mia asked hopefully. Maybe, just maybe, he'd been smart enough to wait and call again.

"No, Mistress. Professor Snape. He say it's about Master Harry."

They didn't need another word and simply sped back downstairs. The fire in the kitchen's fireplace showed Severus Snape's sober face and, as soon as they stepped in front of it, the teach spoke without pleasantries. _"So you weren't taken, Black. Your godson is a moron,"_ Snape stated.

Mia ignored it. "Tell me you stopped him, Severus. Please tell me you did."

"_I couldn't. Umbridge caught him with his little friends sneaking into her office. She called me for Veritaserum, which I didn't give her, by the way, and Potter started shouting that Padfoot, who I assumed to be you, Black, 'was in danger'. I only had time to contact Dumbledore before they managed to do Merlin-knows-what to the headmistress, as seems to be able to find her, and flew from the school in Thestrals. And he wasn't alone. The Weasleys, Grange, Longbotton, Lovegood and your daughter were with him."_

Mia froze. "Izzy's with him too?"

"_Yes. Rule-breaking seems to run in the family."_

"Cut it out and just tell us where they went, would you, Snape?" Sirius said impatiently. "My kids are in _danger_!"

The potions master face in the fire pursed its lips. _"He rambled something about the Department of Mysteries, so I have to assume that's where he went. The order is on its way there already."_

"The department of mysteries… as in those dreams he'd been having before?" Sirius whispered.

"_He's been slacking in his occlumency – Dumbledore warned Potter about the connection being used to as a trap but he didn't listen,_" Snape stated. "_He's just like…_"

Mia interrupted him. "He _did_ listen. That's probably why he sneaked into Umbridge's office – to floo us. He wanted to see if we were okay. Can you really blame a fifteen-year-old boy who's already lost his parents once for wanting to protect the only family he has, Severus?"

Snape was silent for a few moments before coughing and changing the subject. "_Dumbledore had floo connections set between the fireplaces at the ministry's Atrium and the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. Spread the word among the order for them to use them in case of emergency_." And then, he was gone.

Mia's face turned to Sirius, then, and his eyes met hers. "We're going," she stated. As much as she worried about her child, she couldn't – wouldn't – stay behind when two of her children could be in mortal danger.

Sirius simply nodded. "Nothing will happen to them," he promised. And Merlin helped him if he didn't mean it this time around…

---

The way to the ministry was silent and rushed – after ordering Kreacher to go to the Burrow with Alex, they barely took a moment to breathe before they reached the ministry's empty atrium, as it was past work hours, and took the lift to the sublevel where the Department of Mysteries was located.

The dark door was open. That fact itself made them cringe as it was always closed unless there was an unspeakable guarding it, which wasn't the case. And, as soon as they walked through it, they saw Stargis Padmore and Remus already duelling with two masked figures that seemed to be giving quite a fight. A third Death Eater, who'd just entered the room through another door at the end of it, seemed to be trying to sneak up on Padmore but, with a quick move of his wand, Sirius stunned him. That seemed to be enough to distract the unconscious Death Eater's pals, who ended up sharing his fate.

"Where are the kids?" Mia asked Remus, who looks awfully tired due to his transformation the past night.

He shook his head. "I haven't seen any yet – I've just gotten here. You should…" he stopped talking and, in a swift move, casted a shield charm behind them. They turned around and saw a Death Eater approaching. "Go. I'll take care of this one."

They didn't protest and proceeded to go through the door that led further into the department. Behind it, there was a large hall with several doors and, as over half of them were open, they weren't sure of which one to take until Sirius noticed a few shadows appearing from one of them and pointed his wand at it.

"Wait, we're not Death eaters!" a voice said just as Izzy came out of that door revealing herself to be, along with Neville and Ginny, the owner of one of the shadows. The redhead was being carried by the other two, apparently unable to set one of her feet on the floor. Neither of them seemed to be unscathed: Neville's face was covered with blood coming from his nose and Izzy's arms were covered with red marks, some bad enough to rip skin, like something had been tightly tied around them. "Mom? Dad? You're okay."

"Oh, thank, Merlin," Mia murmured and she ran to approach them.

"How did you get all these marks?" Sirius asked, reaching for his daughter's arms.

"There were some brains… and they attacked us with… hum… some sort of tentacles," Izzy said quickly, a bit confused herself. "They just attacked us. There are Death Eaters, Daddy. Everywhere. Bellatrix is here… I heard her say You-Know-Who is on the way too. Harry saw, Harry saw him… and Kreacher said…"

"We know," Mia told her. "We were just out, Izzy. Merlin, what the hell do they want with this whole thing."

"'t was 'bout a pwophecy," Neville said, his voice a bit muffle because of his bloody nose. "'Arry 'nd I had it. I bwoke it."

"At least they get it now…" Sirius mumbled. "What about Harry, where is he?"

Ginny was the one to answer. "He's still in the middle of the battle." She turned to Mia. "My ankle's broken. You can fix it now, can't you? I need to go back inside. He's still there…"

"I could fix it, Ginny," Mia admitted. "But it would still be too sore for you to walk for a while. We'll take care of Harry."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "Remus is just behind us. Go to him and have him take you to the fireplaces at the atrium. You can floo from there to Hogwarts. Go and _stay there,_ you hear me? Now, how do we get to the room where the battle is?"

"The door we came from," Ginny told them. "Then you'll find a hall where you have to pick the third door on the left."

"Bring the others back," Izzy requested. "And be careful."

"Always are," Sirius assured his daughter as she and Neville resumed supporting Ginny's weight on their way out. At least three of them were safe for now. They still needed to get the others, though…

With their, they found the chamber of the battle soon enough. It was a badly lit large, square room, with all its walls covered with bookcases filled with dark-looking books. In the middle, there was a round pit, about fifteen feet deep with a stairwell that circled its interior, leading to bottom of it. Down there, on a slightly raised stage, stood a gloomy-looking archway with a tattered veil.

Sirius saw there were at least ten duels going on at the same time, some between more than two people. Kingsley alone was fighting two Death Eaters and the same happened with Mad-Eye. It's pure chaos, he thought as he witness Mad-Eye send one of his opponents, whose mask fell-off revealing him to be Macnair, flying backwards into the pit and through the arch in the middle of it. He didn't come out the other side…

Sirius felt a soft touch in his arm and turned to see Mia. She looked at him with heavy, worried eyes. "Don't get killed. We still have plenty to talk about."

He nodded. "The same goes to you."

Then, she leaned closer to him and kissed his lips very quickly and very softly. It wasn't a goodbye, just a precaution. As was what she said next. "I love you. Now, let's find Harry."

If the occasion wasn't so tense, he might have had a chance to feel blissful as she walked away. He took the opposite direction, knowing if they split it would be easier to find Harry. Maybe he'd managed to sneak out of the room already. But that wasn't the case, Sirius concluded as he spotted Harry jumping from behind a table as an unmasked Lucius Malfoy sent a Reductor curse at it. Just as Malfoy was about to send another curse, Sirius was faster, petrifying Malfoy just before he finished muttering the curse.

"Sirius, duck!" Harry shouted then and, in a quick reflex, Sirius did it as an orange spell passed right over him and hit one of the stone walls, corroding it like it had just been splashed with acid. He quickly turned around to see none other than Bellatrix standing there, a pleased expression all over her face.

"Hello, cousin," she said in a tone just as acid as her curse had been.

"Bitch," he snarled under his breath before standing up again and shooting a stunner at her.

She was just as quick as he remembered and set up a shield before the spell could hit her. "Not nice, Sirius. Auntie brought you up better than that."

"'Auntie' can shove the upbringing up her arse," he told her.

Bella sighed, as if she was disappointed. "Why don't you tell her that yourself? Crucio!" It barely hit him as he dodged but just the tickle of the Cruciatus was enough to take his breath away and to disorient him enough not to notice the other spell, brilliant red, coming in his direction. _A punching hex_, he thought. One hell of a punching hex that hit him on the gut and pushed him backwards a couple of yards at least. She wanted to have a little fun with him before finishing him. And another one followed before his concentration was back, even stronger than the other.

But when he felt himself falling, no, flying, backwards and not hitting the floor, he realized he'd been closer to the pit than he'd thought. And when he saw the archway from the corner of his eye, he was sure he'd share whatever fate Macnair had gotten… Time seemed to pass really slowly from then on. It had just been a punching hex. How come that was it? How come he'd end up killed by a punching hex an archway. He could hear the voices coming from it already…

Suddenly, he felt something heavy hitting him from the side and saw a flash of black, which, he assumed, was the interior of the archway. But then, he felt himself landing on a plump surface. _Hot damn_, he thought, opening an eye before raising his head. He lied mere inches away from the archway. Inches. And under him lied an unconscious, maybe dead, Goyle Senior. Bless him. If the fatso hadn't hit him, he'd have probably dived into the bloody archway…

The Death Eater's body had softened the fall and he didn't feel that achy. Luck was on his side, apparently. He stood up and climbed up the round staircase as fast as he could, hoping to get Bellatrix by surprise. The bitch probably thought she'd killed him. But it was with terror that he saw she was busy already, duelling with Mia.

"I killed Sirius Black!" Bellatrix bellowed mockingly, shooting a purple spell at Mia, which she deflected with a Protego. "Maybe if you're a good girl, Davis, I'll make sure you join him soon enough."

"It's _Black_," Mia shouted on the top of her voice. "Not Davis."

The more Bellatrix provoked her, saying she'd killed Sirius, the angrier she got and more aggressive her spells became. She was desperate. She needed to see, to check if it was true. She wouldn't allow herself to think or to even slightly believe Sirius was dead without checking. But Bellatrix had blocked her before she could even approach the pit and get a glimpse of the bottom of it.

The other woman turned to use the Cruciatus curse, which Mia escaped by a mere inch. _Too close,_ she thought. One of those could have hurt her baby. She couldn't lose it too if… But, suddenly, before she could finish her thought, her eyes darted to something other than Bellatrix. Sirius. He was alive. He'd just climbed out of the pit and running in hers and Bellatrix's direction, wand in hand. Relief washed over her, melting the ice that had been covering her heart in those moments of uncertainty.

But the relief brought along a few moments of distraction, which Bellatrix didn't waste. The purple light filled Mia's eyes and she knew it was too late to stop it. It was too close. She only had time to turn slightly, trying to protect her unborn child from the impact, and take a step back before she felt it hitting her like an explosion of air, which scooped her up like a weightless body and flung her backwards. Her ears rang as she was literally flew over the room and her mind didn't seem to be working at all. Someone screamed… Sirius, maybe? She knew it wasn't herself as she didn't seem to be able to draw in air to breathe, much less to speak.

The flying part wasn't so bad, it barely hurt her. The worst was the landing. Mia felt her left shoulder and her head hitting the wooden surface first and heard glass breaking as her elbow made its way through glass which, she assumed, belonged to the doors of one of the many bookcases set against the room's walls. The pain was such a shock that her whole body ached indistinctively even before she felt herself hit the glass-covered floor hard enough to scrape flesh. _Is this the end?_ She wondered in fear. For herself, for her baby…

Then, as the sounds of the battle around her became more and more distant, she let out a breath and let the darkness take her in.

**A/N2: To be continued.**

**Feedback is welcomed. Review!**


	56. Aftershock

**A/N: I was counting on updating earlier but my lest two exams (nightmares) got in the way. Now, I'm free. So, go ahead and read - sorry for not giving you the chance to do it earlier...**

Sirius's shock was so deep that he forgot the battle, Bellatrix and everything else. He just ran to Mia. _No, no, no, no_, he thought. Was she dead… no, he wouldn't allow himself to think of it. She was tough. It took more than a little flight to bring his Mia down.

She lay unconscious on the floor by the bookcase, which, thank Merlin, hadn't fallen, crushing her. Looking at her that way was like looking at a broken doll… so fragile, so small. Practically every bit of her bare skin had scrapes and cuts on it, not to mention bruises. There was a large piece of glass piercing her leg and a deep cut on her forehead, which made his heart constrict.

_Please, let her be alive_, he begged to any higher power that was listening as he kneeled by her form. Mia was his life. He simply couldn't lose her or he'd lose himself. He leaned his head down to hear if she was breathing – she had to be, he thought desperately. She couldn't just die like that, before they had a chance to talk, to fix things… Then, he felt the tickling of her breath against his face, to his own relief. She wasn't gone.

"Oh, god, is she alive?" a voice yelled nearby, just as Elizabeth arrived, after having hexed senseless a masked Death Eater when she'd seen her best friend flying across the room. Before Sirius could put himself together and answer, the blonde kneeled on the other side of Mia and groped her wrist. "She is, thank Merlin," she whispered when she felt the pulse.

"Will she be okay?" he asked – she was the healer. She had to know that stuff. He needed to hear that she was going to be okay.

"I can't tell yet. I need to check her vitals first," she said, grabbing her wand and using it to cast a few spells.

He nodded, letting her do her job. "She was fighting with Bellatrix but got distracted when she saw me… there was no time to stop it… I'd fallen into the pit…"

"I know. I saw it," Elizabeth said quickly, looking up for a second. She'd seen Sirius falling and also the look of utter terror on Mia's face when it had happened… "Gabriel was duelling with Goyle and he pushed him into it too so you wouldn't fall through the arch. Merlin, if he hadn't been that fast, who knows what could've happened."

So, he owed his life to Mia's father, Sirius thought. He hadn't even seen him in the battle… but then again, he'd barely seen anyone, with all the commotion that was going on. He looked up, to check if Gabriel was still there but didn't see him anywhere. Had he seen what had happened to his daughter? Maybe he'd left right after he'd sent Goyle down to the pit to save him. The fight was always messy – you either moved or you got hurt. Mia had gotten distracted for a second and now here he was, looking at her unconscious, battered body, hoping, praying, she'd be okay.

He heard in the background the sound of a fast heartbeat and wondered if it was Mia's – it was so fast, too fast… But when he looked up at Elizabeth, he saw she looked satisfied instead of worried. "Is that good?"

She nodded. "Yes, it is." He was so nervous, probably so desperate, he hadn't realized that the heartbeat he'd just heard wasn't Mia's but the baby's… then again, he wouldn't be looking for it, as he still didn't know it existed. The baby's heartbeat was a bit faster than usual but she'd seen it happening in other cases – it was usually the reaction to the mother's distress. Other than that, nothing indicated the baby wasn't alright, so she cast a few protective charms around Mia's womb, trying to shield it from her distress – that should do the job. She chose not to mention the baby to Sirius – hopefully, Mia would have a chance to tell him herself. "Her vitals are a bit altered but not enough to be dangerous," Elizabeth said. "But that injury in her head…"

"You think it's serious?"

"All head injuries can be serious," she said. "I can't do the appropriate tests here, so I can't really tell if it is. It may be nothing…"

"Merlin, is she alright?" Tonks interrupted as she approached them, a look of horror on her face.

"Hopefully she'll be," Elizabeth said.

The metamorphagus nodded before turning to Sirius, who was holding Mia's hand, looking down at her with a painful expression all over his face. "Look, Sirius, I know this isn't the best moment but Harry's just gone after Bellatrix."

"Harry?" Sirius asked, not quite catching the meaning of her words at first. At first, the pieces wouldn't fit together. Why would he go after Bella? Then, the fog in his mind disappeared and he got it: Bellatrix had gone after Mia and Harry had probably seen it. He wanted to get back at her. "He's gone after her on his own?"

"Yes. Dumbledore went after him but I think you should go too," Tonks said. "You're his godfather."

He mentioned to get up but then hesitated, looking down at the unconscious Mia. What about her?

"Go," Elizabeth said firmly. "I'll take care of her."

He knew he had to do it. It was what Mia would've wanted him to do. And, frustratingly, he knew he couldn't help her now, only Elizabeth could. "Will she be okay?" he asked the healer again in a whisper.

She wanted to say 'yes' for sure but she couldn't. Mia was mess but, at least, she was breathing. She could work with that. Breaks, as long as they didn't involve the spine, which, thank Merlin, wasn't the case, were fixable in the magical world. The same was with cuts and scrapes as long as they weren't caused by direct curses. "If it's up to me, she will." That was all she could promise right now.

Sirius couldn't ask for more than that – he knew Elizabeth was good. He knew he could trust her with the life of one of the most precious things he had.

"Son of a…" he heard Tonks cursing seconds before setting up a shield to cover them from a curse an uncloaked Mulciber had just aimed at them. "Go!" she said. "I'll take care of him and cover for them. Bloody coward!" she yelled at the Death Eater before Kingsley came around to help her with him.

Sirius was sure they'd all protect her, so he gave one last look at his wife's battered body before standing up. _Don't you dare die on me, Mia_, he thought. And then, he turned around to go find his godson.

---

Leaving Mia behind was killing him but he knew that, the sooner he got Harry, the sooner he'd be back with her. Discovering where his cousin and, by extension, Harry had gone was a challenge at first. The ministry was enormous – they could be anywhere. But Bellatrix was smart – she'd have set a plan to escape, considering going back to Azkaban wasn't in her plans at all. Bella would've gone to the atrium, as it was the only place at the ministry that contained fireplaces with floo connections.

If he could help it, he wouldn't let her escape this time. Maybe he'd kill her for what she'd done to Mia… or maybe he'd do worse. Merlin knew he wanted to end her life but he knew Mia might have a problem with it – he needed to believe she'd have a chance to do such – and, honestly, death wasn't a fate bad enough for her. No, the Dementor's kiss, eternal emptiness… that had to be the most painful fate there was and exactly what Bellatrix deserved. If he could help it, he'd make sure she shared the fate her husband had gotten. The sadistic bastards…

He exited the lift he'd taken earlier and saw himself in the large hall that led to the atrium. But what he found when he reached it was very far from a teenager trying to defeat a vicious Death Eater. Voldemort. Sirius had been obviously seen him before, back when he belonged to the first Order of the Phoenix but the reaction would always be the same: the chilling sensation that was tainted with fear and disgust.

At the centre of the atrium, Dumbledore and Voldemort were duelling in a way Sirius had never seen anyone doing before. It was fascinating and terrifying at the same time. The effect that the curses of the two wizards made whenever they impacted with each other's looked like the eruption of a large volcano of light. It was nearly impossible to tell which one was winning or losing: one moment it seemed like Dumbledore was about to seize Voldemort, then the latter would disappear and very nearly hit the headmaster with a Killing Curse.

Bellatrix was ducking at the corner, impossible for Sirius to reach unless he dared to get himself in the middle of the duel and likely killed. He knew better than that… Harry however, was nowhere to be seen and Sirius hoped it was because he was covering himself somewhere.

He made his way closer to the scene carefully but in a fast pace. Them, when he was about twenty yards from where the two wizards duelled, he spotted Harry peaking from behind a fallen golden statue that used to be at the centre of the fountain. "Look out!" he godson yelled at Dumbledore, trying to warn him about a curse that Voldemort was aiming at the Headmaster, after materializing himself behind his back.

Dumbledore wasn't fast enough to run but that wasn't the end of him. A ball of fire appeared between him and the curse and, all in the same second, his phoenix appeared from the fire, took the curse upon itself and burned to ashes, being reborn as a little chick-like bird seconds later, croaking feebly on the floor.

Then, with his very own eyes, Sirius watched as Voldemort turned into a liquid form and vanished. For a moment, he thought it was over and the dark lord had finally given up. Harry thought the same and left the safety of his hiding behind the golden statue. Dumbledore only had time to yell at Harry to go back before all hell broke loose.

His godson let out an agonizing scream, covering the scar on his forehead with his palm as he crumpled to the floor in pain. Whatever Voldemort was doing, Sirius thought, was killing Harry. He mentioned to run to help his godson but, Dumbledore, noticing his presence, yelled at him to stay back.

Then, seconds after stopping, he heard Harry speaking in someone else's voice. Voldemort's. The son of a bitch was possessing him. "Kill me now, Dumbledore…" he said, using Harry's mouth. "Kill the boy…" It was by far the most painful and horrifying scene Sirius had ever seen in his life. Abominating.

He gave up on following Dumbledore's orders and ran to Harry as he contorted on the floor, seemingly trying to fight the intruder in his mind. Bellatrix laughed madly, nearby, pleased with her master's actions, which infuriated him. He stopped and got a hold of his wand – she was distracted and he bet he could get her from there. Just a stunner. Or maybe a little punching hex for the irony of it, as she'd nearly gotten him killed with one of those. That would likely do the deal.

But, before he could even aim at her, Harry was able to kick Voldemort out of his mind and the pale, snake-faced figure materialized near Bellatrix, grabbing her arm and disapparating with her. _The bitch escaped_, he thought furiously. Again, she escaped without paying… He could just punch a wall for it! But he had to leave the anger for later – there were more important things to do now. He needed to help Harry. The young boy was starting to sit up when Sirius finally reached him and helped him get to his feet. "You okay?" he asked.

He nodded faintly before looking at him with pained eyes. "They escaped. She killed aunt Mia and escaped!" Harry shouted. "I'm so sorry, Sirius. I… It's all my fault…"

Sirius's mouth opened and closed in disbelief. Harry thought Mia was dead… "No. No, Harry…"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Harry wasn't getting it, he concluded. He thought he was telling him it wasn't his fault. He grabbed him by the shoulders, firmly. "No, Bellatrix _didn't_ kill her." Harry just kept shaking his head. "Harry, look at me! Look at me! She's _not _dead. She got hurt but it didn't kill her! She'll be okay." _She has to be, _he thought over and over. _She has to be okay. I can't bear losing her._ He needed to believe that.

"She… she's not_…_?"

Sirius shook his head, gathering all the positive thinking he could. "Elizabeth's taking care of her. She'll fix her up, you'll see." If she did, he'd be eternally thankful to her…

Harry looked at him, half disbelieving, half relieved and didn't say a word.

"Sirius," he heard a deep voice calling behind him before he could say anything else. It was Kingsley, followed by Mad-Eye. "You should take Harry to Hogwarts," the auror stated. "In a few minutes, reporters will start to arrive."

"Bloody bastards will circle us like vultures circle a corpse," Mad-Eye grumbled in annoyance.

"But Mia…"

"Elizabeth's taken her to Hogwarts. I gave them an emergency portkey," Kingsley said.

Harry frowned. "A portkey? You can't use portkeys or apparition inside the Department of Mysteries…" He hesitated for a moment. "Aun…Aunt Mia told us that when she taught us about the creation of the ministry."

"Those cloaked bastards broke down the whole ministry's wards," Mad-Eye explained moodily. "How else do you think they got into the most, well-protected department in this building? They had to have moles in the inside to do it… when I get those sons of a…"

Kingsley coughed, warning his former trainer of the presence of minors. "Moody, please."

The former auror grumbled something under his breath before walking away.

"The other kids are already taken care of," Kingsley said, matter-of-factly, mostly directing his words to Harry, knowing they were his friends. "Lulu and Gabriel were getting the last three that were still here and must've already taken them to the school." He looked at Sirius. You guys should really go now before the Daily Prophet arrives…"

"Right," Sirius mumbled, feeling a bit numb. His head felt like a while box of vacuum – he couldn't think of breathe or even rest before seeing Mia. While during those moments when he'd watch Dumbledore and Voldemort duel he'd barely been able to think of Mia with all the tumult, now he couldn't get that urge to go see if she was okay out of his mind... The prospect of losing her and everything that it involved was too painful, too heavy…

His arm came around Harry's shoulders and he instinctively guided his godson to one of the fireplaces and grabbed a handful of the floo powder that rested in a bowl on its lintel bar, which transported them to another fireplace just at the end of the hall that led them to the Hospital Wing.

He waited a few seconds until Harry flooed right behind him, to make sure he wouldn't end up in the wrong fireplace. "Wait here," he told his godson before making his way straight to the infirmary's door.

Sirius was fairly sure someone – not Harry – had called his name on his way there but he simply ignored it, just walking towards his destination. Nothing but Mia mattered at that moment. He walked to the door at the end of the hall and opened it, stepping in.

He first noticed Hermione and Luna lying unconscious on two of the beds and Ron not so far away, awake. Sirius kept walking straight to a curtained area at the end of the room, behind which he saw the shadow of someone moving right before Elizabeth stepped into the aisle, making him stop.

"Is she okay?" he asked immediately. "Please tell me she'll be okay."

The healer sighed. "She'll be fine, Sirius, just calm down. She'll be just fine."

He closed his eyes for a moment and let out a relieved breath. _Oh, thank Merlin,_ he thought. Sirius let himself take several other breaths before looking up at the healer again. "Is she awake?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "No. She woke up for a few seconds while we were treating her and asked for you. I said you were alright and she was out again – odds are she won't even remember it when she wakes up. She's suffered a head injury and, honestly, hasn't been able to get much sleep lately – her body needs to rest."

He felt his heart constricting again. "Could it… could she never wake up?"

"Sirius, you can't think that way," she told him. "Madam Pomfrey and I have examined her thoroughly and nothing indicates that she's in any sort of coma. We decided to just let her sleep, okay? She'd be pretty sore if she woke up right now, anyway, as she's still healing."

Sirius nodded in response – he'd have to trust her. Elizabeth had been doing a good job so far. "Can I see her?"

She nodded. "We've just finished taking care of her. Come on, she's right here."

Elizabeth made her way back to behind the curtain and Sirius followed her. He immediately saw Mia asleep on the bed. She didn't look as bad as she'd looked before: the scrapes and cuts caused by the glass were healed, the blood had been cleaned and she didn't seem as breakable. He took a seat on a chair by her bed and reached for her hand – her skin felt warm but not feverish.

"How bad was she, really?" he asked. He couldn't help wondering what sort of injuries she'd suffered, though they were mostly healed now. He wanted to know every detail he'd make Bellatrix pay for one day. He sighed. If Mia wasn't his conscience now, he might have killed that wretched bitch for hurting her at all.

"She had a separated shoulder, a broken humerus – that's the bone in her upper arm –, bruised ribs and a fracture kneecap. I healed the bones but the separated shoulder will have to get better with time – joints are pretty sensitive. The piece of glass that was piercing her leg didn't puncture an artery, thank Merlin, and she has a sprained wrist because of falling on it, I think," Elizabeth said, making an effort to keep herself calm as she said it – truth was she'd been just as terrified by seeing Mia so hurt as he had – especially since she'd known Mia was carrying a child… but she'd be fine and so would the baby. "I'll leave you alone, okay? I'll go out to give the others an update… Izzy was here when we carried Mia inside. We didn't have time to explain what was happening."

Sirius looked at her – maybe it had been Izzy who'd called him when he was on his way there. Now, he felt a little bad for not stopping but he was so anxious to check on Mia… "Can you bring them in? Izzy and Harry. I think they may want to see her."

The healer nodded. "I'll talk to them and bring them in."

As Elizabeth stepped away, Sirius looked back at his wife. He felt so powerless just sitting there, waiting for her to wake up and get better. Usually, it was him who made her feel better… and just a week ago he was the one who's shattered her heart with his stupid lie. He could just punch himself for it. But she'd seemed better that day, right before the battle. She'd told him they needed to talk, she'd kissed him and she'd said she loved him. He hadn't said it back, so stunned he was from hearing those words coming out of her mouth at that moment. He should have. He would have wasted the last chance to say he loved her if she'd di… _Forget it, she's alive_, he told himself before placing a soft kiss on her brow.

"Daddy," he heard Izzy saying in a faint tone. He turned and saw her standing there, her eyes red from crying and her arms still marked – now as badly as they'd been before – with a silent Harry by her side.

He sighed. "Come here," he told his daughter, who took a few steps in his direction and propelled herself on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. He just held her close for a few moments – she did look like she needed a hug. And then, as he felt her relax, he loosened his hold so he could look her in the eyes. "She'll be okay, Izzybel."

She nodded. "That's what Elizabeth said. She said Bellatrix Lestrange cursed her and sent her flying against a bookcase."

"Yeah, she did," Sirius said faintly, still feeling the sting inside for not having been able to capture her. He looked at Harry over Izzy's shoulder and saw him looking at Mia's unconscious form. He could just guess what he was thinking while he did it. "It's Bellatrix's fault that she's hurt, not yours. You were just trying to save our lives, kid, risking your own."

"But it wasn't true," he replied. "Voldemort had made it all up – it was a setup. Aunt Mia wouldn't have been there if I hadn't fallen into it."

"He has fooled people far older, far more experienced than you, Harry," Sirius assured him. "What happened to your godmother today could have happened in any other battle. It's the risk we take and if you want to blame it on someone, blame it on Bellatrix. It isn't your fault."

"It feels like it is," Harry whispered, sitting on a chair next to the one where Sirius was sitting.

"It wasn't just you who wanted to go," Izzy stated. "We all did – we all helped you sneak into Umbridge's office, we all escaped her and we all went to the Department of Mysteries to save Mom and Dad and Alex. We thought it was the only chance."

Sirius nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Look, I can tell you for sure that I would have done just the same. Maybe I wouldn't have even called home to check if it was true. So, for all I can tell, you did the right thing. Let's call it a series of unfortunate events and just be done with the guilt, okay? It's pointless."

Harry remained silent. _At least,_ he thought_, nobody is dead_. It had nearly killed when he'd thought that Mia, the only mother he knew, was gone forever. Who else would scold him for having a mess made out of his room or for getting himself into trouble all the time? He'd gone after Bellatrix to make her pay but, deep down, he'd known he didn't stand a chance against an experienced Death Eater like her…

"You two should go to bed. It's late," Sirius pointed out.

"Can't we stay here until Mom wakes up?" Izzy asked.

Mia wouldn't have wanted them to give up on their rest because of her, he thought. And he'd have to act as the responsible parent while she was unconscious. "I don't think so. It's time you go to bed. I promise I'll go get you as soon as she wakes up, okay? But only if you two go and try to sleep."

They protested a little but when Madam Pomfrey showed up and told them she wouldn't have students staying up late in her infirmary, promptly shooing them out, they just let Sirius walk them out of the Hospital Wing.

Outside, Sirius immediately spotted Lulu standing with Gabe, talking in hushed tones by one of the hall's windows and, after telling the kids to wait a few minutes by the doors, he made his way to them.

"How's she doing?" Lulu inquired as she saw him.

"She's still unconscious. Elizabeth says she'll be fine," he told them shortly.

"She told us the same," Lulu stated. But she'd been hoping her daughter would wake up in the meanwhile… "I think I'm going in to see her."

Sirius nodded as she made her way to the door before turning to Gabriel before he had a chance to follow her. "I need to thank you. For saving my life."

"You don't need to," he said. "You're a good guy and Mia loves you. If I had a chance to save you, I couldn't give it up for anything, or else she'd be heartbroken." He paused, looking slightly pained. He'd gone back to Luce right after he was done with Goyle because she'd stayed behind, alone, protecting the other kids. For a matter of minutes he hadn't been there to keep his daughter from being harmed… he hadn't even known she'd gotten hurt until Elizabeth had brought her there when he and Lucy were dropping the kids in the Hospital Wing… "I can take the kids to the Gryffindor tower for you. I bet Mia would like you to be the first person she sees when she wakes up."

"Thanks. I think I'll take you up on that," Sirius said.

He quickly wished Harry and Izzy a good night before they took off with Gabriel to their dorms and then made his way back to Mia's side. She still wasn't awake, so he sat back on the chair that he had occupied before, while Lulu stood on the other side, talking to Elizabeth in whispers.

Sirius reached for his wife's hand again and held it. Her wedding ring was gone but he quickly found it on the bedside table and supposed Elizabeth had needed to take it off because of the swelling caused by the injury in her wrist and hand. He reached for the ring and stuffed it in his pocket in order to keep in safety. He'd give it back to her later…

_I won't leave you alone for more than five minutes until you wake up,_ he silently promised. He just hoped, dearly hoped, that Elizabeth was right and that it wouldn't take long…

**A/N2: So, she's fine but still knocked out (and up too). As you can see, I'm not _that _evil... What would be a second volume without Mia for Sirius to be all gentlemanly with? Anyway, just one chapter left in this volume and then we jump to the next. By the way, the name of the next volume will be 'Brave New Hope' and the first chapter will likely be posted at the same time as the next one. I will apologize again for not updating earlier but the exams were just awful.**

**Oh, and by the way, I wanted to thank so much my new beta for checking this chapter, which would be a pit of typos if she hadn't!**


	57. Awakening

**A/N: And for the last chapter of this volume...**

Mia regained consciousness slowly, wondering what had happened. Had she fallen asleep? She didn't remember going to bed and she was fairly certain she was currently lying on one. Suddenly, she moved and the pain felt awful everywhere, mostly her left shoulder and knee, reminding her of the battle. She remembered Bellatrix throwing curses at her, one hitting her and making her fly all the way across the room. She also remembered glass, loads of it, and hitting the floor, shocked by the pain. She'd thought she was going to die.

Had she? Could she be… on the other side? Had she been separated from Sirius, from her family, forever? Had she died without telling Sirius she'd forgiven him? No, it couldn't be, could it? Death was supposed to be peaceful, painless. That wasn't. She had to be alive to have her body hurting that much.

She could hear a voice nearby and something… no, someone, touching her arm – the pounding in her head wouldn't allow her to make much sense of anything yet. She needed a few moments to get used to it too. To get used to be conscious…

"…_got to wake up now, Mia_," a voice, Sirius's, told her. "_We need you here with us, not up in dreamland. Molly says Alex's been calling for you. We all need you_." He grasped her hand and she winced. Apparently it was hurt too. "_Mia? Mia?_" he called, his tone hopeful.

She took a few seconds before opening her eyes, letting all her other senses flood back along with her consciousness. The room was dark as at least half the windows of the room that she recognized as Hogwarts's Hospital Wing were covered with thick curtains. She tentatively turned her face to side, in order to see her husband. His face was a mixture of fear and relief as he looked at her.

"Merlin, I thought you'd never wake up…" he whispered. "Are you in pain? Do you need me to call someone?"

"My hand…" she whispered.

He let go of it, giving her an apologetic look. "Sorry, I forgot."

She'd have shaken her head to tell him it was alright if she wasn't fairly certain it would only worsen her headache. "It's okay," Mia mumbled, feeling her throat dry. "I'm thristy. Need to sit up."

"It will probably hurt," he warned her, knowing it from experience. She gave him a little nod, telling him to go ahead, anyway, and he carefully helped her sitting up against a bunch of pillows he quickly conjured. He was especially careful with her shoulder, which Elizabeth had warned him that might be the injury that would take the longest to heal before she'd placed Mia's arm on a sling a few hours ago.

Then, he reached for a glass of water by the bedside table to give it for her to drink. After she was done, he placed the glass back where it had been and sat on the edge of her bed, waiting for her to say something.

She looked at him more closely, this time, her eyes struggling to focus on his form while the headache tried to force them shut. He looked tired, like he hadn't slept in a while… Suddenly, a question came to her mind. "How long was I…?"

"You were out for nearly twelve hours," he said before she could finish. "Elizabeth said you were conscious for a few seconds while they treated but you might not remember it."

Mia nodded briefly – she knew she had important things to worry about and to tell him but her mind couldn't quite focus yet and they were still an annoying blur. She went for the general questions at first, hoping they'd clear her mind. "What happened after I… Did anyone get hurt? Harry? Is he okay?"

"Harry's just fine, Mia. He went after Bellatrix because of what she did to you but she escaped. Some stuff happened but he didn't get hurt. Some of the others did, though. Madam Pomfrey set Hermione, Ron and Luna loose a few hours ago – they were the ones who got the most hurt out of the kids. Dumbledore was here and said there was some sort of attempted escape while they were rounding up the captured Death Eaters and Tonks had gotten cursed during it – Remus is with her at St. Mungos. They say she'll stay there for a week, at least, but she'll make a full recovery." He paused. "You and Tonks were the ones who got hurt the most…"

She glanced at her own arm in a sling and her eyes looked sideways at her shoulder which, even hidden by the sleeve of her pyjamas, looked awfully swollen. Judging by the generalized aching, she seriously doubted that was the end of it. "So, how… how bad am I?"

Sirius took a deep breath. "Not as bad as you might have been, Mia, but not great either. You had a bunch of broken bones including your kneecap, bruised ribs, a skull fracture and a separated shoulder. Elizabeth healed the breaks already but she says the shoulder will take a few weeks to get better and that you shouldn't try to walk on your knee for a few of days because it probably won't be very steady. Apart from that, there was also plenty of bruising and cuts, but no permanent damage, thank Merlin."

Long story short, she'd been lucky not to break her neck, she thought. Though relieved she was going to be okay, Mia couldn't help feeling frustrated for still not being able to remember those important things she needed to say or ask or whatever. What were they? She knew she'd be alright, that nobody from the order had been killed or critically wounded, her family… Then, like the word 'family' was a switch that she'd just pulled everything came back to her: the fight, the need to patch things up… "The baby," she whispered. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of the baby before – it was so small and helpless. She was supposed to protect it. How could she have forgotten it? "What happened to the baby? Is it okay?"

"You mean Alex? He's fine. He's still with Molly and Arthur – I flooed them a few hours ago to make sure he was fine."

"No, not Alex. The baby…" she said, her voice trembling with fear as she shook her head and reached for her stomach with her unharmed hand. "This baby." She paused, recognising the surprise in his eyes. "You didn't know. They didn't tell you I was… I am pregnant."

Sirius shook his head, his mouth half hanging open. It took him a few seconds to find his voice again... "When did you find out?"

"A couple of days ago," Mia said hurriedly. "Sirius, I need to know if our baby is okay. Please!"

He started to get up, half shocked, half fearing. "I'll go ask…"

"No need to," someone said from behind him just as Elizabeth stepped in, standing by the side of this chair. "Calm down, Mia. Your baby is okay."

"Are you sure?" Mia asked as hand still covered her stomach protectively.

She nodded and went on healer mode. "Look, at first I was a worried because the baby's heartbeat was a little faster than usual but I cast a protective spell around your womb and it normalized the heart sounds. This early in the pregnancy, trauma is either deadly for the embryo or barely affects it all. I've triple checked already and there is no reason to believe your baby isn't completely healthy, Mia."

"You knew?" Sirius asked her in disbelief, as he sat down again. "So that heartbeat you were listening to at the Department… Why didn't you say something?"

She gave him an apologetic look. "Because I saw the baby was alright and I wanted to give Mia a chance to tell you herself." Then, she turned to her friend, who was looking at Sirius a bit guiltily. "I was hoping you'd do it in a much… ceremonial way but well, too late, I guess. Well, just listen to this. I suppose it will make up for any poorly-told news." The healer carefully brushed the covers and Mia's two-piece pyjamas out of the way to reveal her abdomen and murmured a few words, pointing her wand there. Just as she did it, the familiar sound of an unborn heartbeat flooded the room.

Relief washed over Mia once again and her unharmed hand reached for Sirius's as they listened to the beating of their baby's heart. "Thank you," she whispered to Elizabeth.

Her friend smiled back and waved her wand again, making the sound of the heartbeat disappear. "You can pay me back by taking better care of yourself. If I see you on a battle again while pregnant, I _will_ put you on forced bed rest. Mark my words." She circled the bed and approached a little cupboard that was bolted to the wall, removing a bottle of a pinkish potion, which she poured into the glass on Mia's bedside table. "Pain-blocking potion. This one should help you with the aching and won't hurt the baby."

Mia nodded and, with the healer's help, drank the whole thing. She was glad to find out it didn't taste very bitter or sickening sweet and started to feel her head less achy just seconds after drinking the potion.

"I'll leave you two alone, okay?" Elizabeth said. "I suppose you have plenty of stuff to discuss."

"'Kay." Just as Elizabeth disappeared, Mia turned to Sirius and sighed, her good hand still gripping his. "Are you angry at me for not telling you about the baby before? I wanted to, it's just… it didn't sound right bringing it up when we were so… distant." She sighed. "The whole fight just sounds so meaningless now."

He gently brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "I could never be angry at you over this – I know you'd tell me about the baby as soon as we fixed things," he whispered, looking her in the eyes with such love… and a bit of guilt. "It wasn't a meaningless fight, Mia. I did something awful and you had every right to be angry."

She shook her head. "I… I shouldn't have demanded that you promised me not going after Wormtail. Not after what we'd learnt about what he's done. I understand now. I just didn't want you to get hurt…"

"I could have refused to make that promise, Mia, but I didn't. This one's on me. That said, I'm really sorry for hurting you that way," he told her as he touched her slightly bruised cheek with his hand carefully. "Watching you this whole week, Mia, so miserable, made me regret it more than I can ever tell you. And I promise I'll never make a promise that I don't mean again. Or lie to you…" he paused, weighing his words "…unless you're having a hormonal rampage and ask me some sort of trick question that I'll only survive if I tell you a little white lie, whose content I won't specify for my own safety."

Mia had to chuckle at the last statement. "I suppose I can live with that," she said, smiling at him. "Honestly, I'd forgiven you already. Gabe and Lulu talked to me. They helped me understand what those things Rodolphus said made you feel. I was going to talk to you yesterday, hoping to fix things and tell you I was pregnant – I'd just decided to do it before Kreacher warned me about Harry." She paused, looking into his eyes, no pain, no sadness. Just joy from having him back. "I love you."

"I love you," he replied. Sirius leaned forward, intending to kiss her, but instead found himself simply holding her against him, carefully not to hurt her much, though, and burying his face against her hair. Every thought and fear he'd held back since she'd woken up flooded back into his mind, terrifying him in a way that words couldn't describe. He'd never been that close to losing her. "Oh Merlin."

"I'm alright. Don't worry, Sirius. We're alright. All of us are," she whispered to him.

"You have no idea what it felt like watching you lying there on the floor, hurt and unconscious. For a moment I thought that bitch had killed you. I couldn't bear thinking that you might be gone… It killed _me_."

"You weren't the only one," she whispered, making him pull away slightly to look her in the eyes. Mia understood exactly what he'd felt while he'd been unsure if she was alive or dead – after all she hadn't been the only one who'd nearly died at the Department. "That archway with the veil, Sirius… I saw you falling into the part where it was and I thought… it was a miracle you didn't fall into it."

Sirius shook his head. "It wasn't a miracle – it was Gabriel. He sent Goyle into the pit to block my way to the archway. He saved my life."

"Gabriel…" she whispered. She hadn't even seen him – she hadn't seen anything but Sirius falling and then, before she could even think, Bellatrix had gotten to her. Twice in the same day Gabriel had gotten Sirius back to her: one time by helping her forgive him, another by literally saving his life. "We owe him a great deal," Mia told Sirius softly. She promised herself to let him know how deeply thankful she was to him, next time she saw him.

"We do," he agreed. Sirius supposed the shock of nearly losing her had forced him to brush off that chilling sensation that was a near-death experience. But now that she mentioned it, he actually got the true meaning of it. "It was too close last night. For both of us." He was all for a fight but maybe they should rethink their battle strategies from now on.

She nodded soberly. "If both of us had died, Harry, Izzy and Alex would've been parentless – they still need us."

"And this baby, our baby," Sirius mumbled, placing a hand on his wife's flat abdomen, "wouldn't have even gotten a chance to live…"

Maybe back when they belonged to the first Order of the Phoenix it had been right to risk it all because they didn't have people completely dependent on them. Now, their lives were different. Sirius didn't want Alex to know him and Mia by photos and other people's reminiscences like Harry knew James and Lily. He wanted to be the one to walk Izzy down the aisle when she got married one day and then sit with Mia as she cried through the whole ceremony and drink himself stupid the day Harry got himself his first kid, only to be scolded by his wife when he got home. He wanted it all and he wanted it normal… but he supposed that might be asking for too much. Times were risky and war had officially started in the moment Fudge had been forced to acknowledge Voldemort was back – he supposed it was only a matter of time before the deaths started… "One of us will have to stay back during battles from now on," he stated.

"And, let me guess, you want it to be me," Mia said flatly.

He nodded. "It's not for any sort of chauvinistic reason, Mia. Look, for now it is because you're pregnant – let's not put that kid in more danger than it has already been through. But, overall, it is because I just go stupid when I think you're in danger. When you got hurt, I completely ignored Bellatrix, didn't even see Harry going after her and probably acted like an idiot all around because all I could think of was if you were going to be okay."

She looked unimpressed. "And you think I didn't do just the same? I knew I was pregnant, Sirius. Duelling with Bellatrix Lestrange couldn't be farther from what I intended to do, knowing in how many different ways she could kill me. Look, I'll spare us from another fight and tell you this right now: I won't go into a fight while I'm still carrying this baby but not even you will be able to keep from doing it after it is born. We're a team, Sirius. From now on, we'll just be an even better team – we'll make sure we always fight together in battles, we'll watch each other's backs and we'll make sure none of us gets killed. Don't bother trying to change my mind because it _won't_ work."

He sighed – he could see by the look on her face that she wasn't kidding at all. Even with a sling around her arm, an aching body and lying on a hospital bed she could be all firm with her ideas – likely had gotten that from Lulu. And, well, he really didn't feel like causing another fight now… "I suppose I can deal with a mutual protection deal."

"Good. Fighting about it would only make my headache worse, honestly." Though the pain-blocking potion seemed to be doing its job well enough, that little sting was still there.

Sirius's face shifted to worry. "Do you to rest a little more?"

"No, I've slept more than enough," Mia told him, smiling warmly at his worry. "What I really want now is to see the kids – Harry, Izzy, Alex… I just need to see them."

He nodded, getting up. "Alright, I'll go fetch the Izzy and Harry and then swing by the Burrow to get Alex. It's still early but I doubt they'll mind. But in the meantime, you might want to see Lulu and Gabe – they've been camping outside all night long waiting for news."

"_All_ night long?" she asked in surprise. "Merlin, they didn't have to stay."

"They'd have gone mad if they had to wait at home," Sirius said, knowing exactly how the waiting felt like. "I'll send them in when I go out okay?"

She nodded. "'Kay."

Sirius smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "Now, you behave while I'm gone." Then, he stopped for a moment before leaning down further to press his lips against her abdomen. "Keep an eye on Mummy, little one."

Mia couldn't help chuckling at the little expression of affection – how she'd longed for it while they were at odds… "Come here," she said just as he was straightening up again. He leaned to her a few of inches and she wrapped her right arm, which didn't seem to have received anything more dangerous than scrapes in the battle, around his neck.

He held back in return, carefully, just glad to have her close. "I missed you," he heard her whispering in his ear.

"The feeling was mutual, love," he assure her before pulling back just enough for their faces to meet, allowing him to kiss her softly. It was soft and yet hungry at the same time – such a whirlwind of contrasts… The need to show each other their love in that kiss, that all was well now, was mingled with that Sirius's effort not to go too far, afraid he'd accidentally hurt her still injured body in his passion. Merlin knew all he wanted was for her, and their child that she was carrying, to be alright. _I supposed I'm able to balance the scales_, he thought as his lips came apart from her soft ones. "I'd love to stay and kiss you some more but if I do, I'll have two teenagers and a toddler not so happy with me for keeping them waiting."

She chuckled slightly and leaned further against the pillows, where she loosened the sling around her arm a bit, as it felt rather uncomfortable. "I suppose my healers wouldn't approve of their patient snogging in the Hospital Wing, anyway."

"I'll try not to take long, okay?" He kissed her brow one last time before getting up and walking out of her sight quickly.

Her hands, both of them, rested on her stomach. There was relief and happiness inside her, despite the dark times that were coming. For now, she was just glad to be alive, glad not to have lost her baby and glad her family was alright. "Your daddy is pretty great," she whispered to her unborn child. She'd missed them being a unit. Maybe it was selfish feeling so happy now but she just couldn't help it …

"Oh, here she is," Mia heard Lulu saying before glancing at her. Her mother was shaking her head at her in disapproval as Gabe appeared behind her and gave her a relieved smile. "Now, look at that. Bandages, bruises, broken bones. Merlin, Mia, we gave you that body to use, not to ruin. Try to keep that in mind, would you? 'Cause there are no replacements there."

She rolled her eyes. "Here I thought I'd get a tearful hello from a desperate mother instead of a lecture. If I didn't know this was your way of telling you're glad I'm okay, I might be offended."

Lulu sighed and sat down on the edge of her bed, lightly slapping her daughter's leg softly. "Don't ever give us a scare like that, you hear me? I was okay with you getting a scratched knee or a few bruises while you played when you were a kid but flying across a room and hitting a bloody bookcase doesn't sound so mild."

"Yeah, it doesn't feel so mild either," Mia told her, before looking up at Gabriel, who still hadn't said a word. "I can't thank you enough for what you did… for saving my husband's life."

"I've already told him there's no need to thank me," he stated before letting out a breath – as much as he felt like it would be wiser not to step into that territory, he couldn't help doing it. He sat on a chair by the side of her hospital bed. "I saved him for you, Mia. True, I'd probably try to save from death anyone who fought side by side with me but I don't think I would have found the strength to move so fast if the person in question wasn't so important to someone I love… to my daughter. And this has made me realize a thing: as much as I try to just be your friend, Mia, I'll always feel like your father. I'll never be able to think of myself in any other way. If you want me to stay out of your life because of it, I'll respect that but I can't just stand in the backstage and not try to play my role."

Mia accepted those words more easily than she'd have predicted. "You know, in the past days, not to mention during the rest of the time I've know you, you've done more things for me as a father for me than Phillip Davis did in those two decades he was supposed to have acted as one."

"Piece of crap, that bloke was," Lulu said under her breath. "Him and his wife. Would never forget their precious meetings for the ministry but weren't even capable of sending a bloody card for your birthday. Careless little…"

Mia coughed, interrupting her, before she turned to look at Gabriel. She knew well enough Lulu didn't like them even dead. "My point was that you most certainly won't have to fight anyone else for the role of my father. I don't really know what it is like to have one but, well, I'm willing to give you a try."

He smiled. "You have no idea how much that means to me."

Lulu looked away, biting her inner lip. Her eyes burned as things were set right but she held back the tears – crying out of joy would completely ruin her badass image, wouldn't it? "Oh, just hug and be done with it. We're not getting any younger."

They chuckled lightly but did as she told them and hugged carefully. The last time he'd held his daughter in his arms, Gabriel recalled, was when she was still a newborn baby. It felt like it was just yesterday.

When they pulled apart, Lulu spoke again. "Well, I suppose it's time you knew that Gabe and I… well, we're… together… as in a couple. There, I said it."

Mia raised her eyebrow. "Do you actually believe that's news to anyone? It's pretty obvious."

"Obvious? How's it _obvious_?" her mother inquired in surprise.

"Well, you live together, you go out together, you let him take you on a date for Valentine's day… might as well stamp it to your foreheads."

"That's what I've been telling her for months," Gabe pointed out

"Okay, first, that Valentine's day thing," she made a face as she said it, "was a _walk_, not a _date_ and how do you even know about it?"

"I was out with Sirius and saw you guys. I didn't say a thing because I assumed you were getting a kick out of keeping it a secret… not that it was very well-kept. But congratulations, anyway."

"And here I thought I'd be surprising you," Lulu mumbled.

That reminded Mia of something that might be a good idea to break to them now. "Well, then why don't _I_ surprise you instead?" she said. And then, she proceeded to inform them they were going to become grandparents again in a few months.

---

Albus Dumbledore had dared that moment for seventeen years. Ever since Sybill Trelawney had sat opposite him and, in a trance, made the ultimate prophecy, he'd dared the moment when he'd have to voice it out loud. The mess at the ministry and the emergency disciplinary hearing against Fudge had been a good excuse to allow him to procrastinate but he knew the time had come: Tom had tried to get it for himself, to learn the prophecy from its record at the Department of Mysteries. It shamed him to feel such but he was glad Harry had fallen into that trap – that way, he'd gotten the prophecy himself and it had ended up broken. Now, nobody with bad intentions would get a hold of it.

Harry had questioned him about it only a few minutes before, right after supper in the Great Hall. His curious mind wanted to know if he knew anything about the prophecy and why it had his name and Voldemort's on him. Dumbledore had told the truth and confirmed that he knew exactly what it said, promising him to reveal it when they were in more private surroundings. Truth was, surroundings weren't the problem – he just needed to inform someone else first.

He stepped into the Hospital Wing very silently and, at the opposite side of the room, Sirius and Amelia didn't even notice his presence. Sirius sat on a chair by the bed where his wife was lying awake, with their young son, Alex, asleep and cuddled against his mother's side in the bed. Both parents talked calmly, their tones carefully low not to disturb the little boy's sleep. The smiles that covered their faces made him envy their ability to experience such bliss in so tense times.

Dumbledore had always been fond of both of them, even when they were only his students. They had always been rather different from the other students, though that didn't keep them from fitting in. Complicated family lives had made them more mature in some ways, though it wouldn't be safe to say in all of them – Sirius's long detention records were more than enough proof that they still conserved the typical immaturity of their natural age. Dumbledore had seen them slowly being drawn to each other and, eventually, becoming a couple and later a family so different from the ones they'd had before. It had been Amelia's job to raise Harry Potter away from fame, away from home, and, Dumbledore had to admit, she'd done a good job. It was with amusement that he recalled Harry mentioning earlier that she'd condemned him and Isabelle to be on dish-duty for the first week of their Summer break just for the single fact that they'd given her the scare of a lifetime. He'd trust nobody else but her and Sirius to stand by his side when he informed Harry of his fate…

"I hope I am not interrupting anything," Dumbledore said, after having made his way closer to them.

Mia looked up and gave him a smile. "Not at all."

"I trust you are feeling better now," he said.

She nodded. "Yes, I think I am. Elizabeth promised to spring me from here tomorrow so I can go home."

"Home to stay in bed and rest for a few days," Sirius reminded her, making her roll her eyes. He turned to Dumbledore. "Do you have any news for us?"

The headmaster nodded. _More than you would ever imagine,_ he thought. But he quickly decided not to start with the main matter that had brought him there – tamer themes might be better way to start a conversation. "Well, Cornelius has just lost his position as the Minister of Magic – the International Confederance of Wizards, which has invited me back to my old chair there, arranged for a emergency disciplinary hearing to be held for him and they deeply disapproved of the behaviour Cornelius had been adapting all year long. Also, the Daily Prophet had to reprint today's edition, where they admitted Lord Voldemort's return, three times, so it's safe to say that people are no longer fighting with their own foolishness."

"Took them long enough," Mia said under her breath.

"Let me guess, they managed to drag Harry's name into the news, somehow," Sirius said in annoyance.

Dumbledore nodded. "I suppose they may be feeling embarrassed, as they only reserved young Harry a single paragraph with an apologetic tone in it. But, ahead to more interesting matters, a few hours ago Hagrid and the team of aurors that was accompanying him have finally located our… dear colleague, Dolores Umbridge, in the forbidden forest. She seems to be unharmed, though in a rather… embarrassingly tall situation."

That brought a smile to Sirius's lips. "Please, don't spare us from the details."

The headmaster couldn't help letting out a chuckle. "Well, I assume young Harry has already informed you of how he and Miss Granger lured Dolores into the forbidden forest."

Sirius gave a nod. Yes, when Harry had came with Izzy to visit Mia, they certainly had indulged them with all the details of their escape, including how he and Hermione had convinced Umbridge that they had some sort of massive weapon to use against the ministry hidden in the forest, how the – certainly former by now – headmistress had dragged them there and, faced with a herd of Centaurs, insulted them and gotten herself captured by them and Hagrid's giant brother, Grawp.

Dumbldore continued. "Well, it seems somehow she'd ended up on the very top of an eighty feet tall tree and was having some trouble descending from it, as her wand was broken to pieces. Hagrid mentioned she did try to make a rope with her clothes but it ended up falling down."

"Wait… so she was up there… stark naked?" Mia asked, wide-eyed.

"I believe she still had her… unmentionables on," the headmaster stated, trying to keep a serious face.

"Please tell me someone took pictures," Sirius whispered. Oh, what he could do with those pictures… the royal amount of blackmail… the bashing…

"I don't think they had any camera within hand's reach," Dumbledore stated, nonchalant. "Well, after the aurors managed to rescue Dolores, she had to be taken to St. Mungo's, so hysterical they found her."

_Why the hell couldn't I be there? _Sirius thought. Watching something like that had to provide him with laughs for a lifetime. When he looked back at Dumbledore's face, he saw it had turned hard and serious and suddenly felt cold. He was done with the good news, clearly.

"I'm afraid not all news I have for you are good," the headmaster told them, voicing exactly Sirius's thoughts.

Mia's good hand reached to grip Sirius's. "Did someone die?"

He shook his head. "No, thank Merlin, no." Dumbledore let out a deep breath. "This is about something that had happened a long time ago, something that will most certainly affect the future."

"The future?" Sirius inquired.

Dumbledore nodded. "It concerns your godson. Maybe I should have revealed this a long time ago – you had a right to know… but I was hoping that, by sparing you, I'd be making your lives easier and giving Harry a chance to be as close to a regular boy as possible."

"Albus, what is going on?" Mia asked, fearful.

The headmaster let out a sigh and, soberly, started talking. "Seventeen years ago, a prophecy was made…"

**THE END... for now**

**A/N: New volume posted in my profile under the name of 'BRAVE NEW HOPE'.**

**That said, I really hope you liked this fic overall - it was quite a ride and certainly very enjoyable to read. So, I'll once more say that feedback if more than welcome. Review!**

***Sigh* Off to volume 2 now.**


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